See You Soon
by sk4di
Summary: Aubrey decided to visit an old friend. (A series of moments of Aubrey and Chloe.)
1. Found myself at your door

There was a storm approaching the city that day, but Aubrey couldn't think why it should suspend her plans, after all, it was just water.

She planned this for weeks - months, if she could be very honest with herself - scheduled on her agenda and postponed appointments and everything, like anything in her life. Watching from inside her car the suburban street at the hour when the families get back home from school or work on that Thursday, she asked herself again why she was there. Aubrey looked up at the cloudy sky but the clouds didn't had an answer, they just remembered her of the color of her room's walls and it irritated her enough to look away.

Across the street was the number 56. A very modest house: two-stories, painted in blue with white windows, a small balcony at the front, an empty driveway and unkempt garden where she saw some forgotten toys. The lights were all out despite it being dark enough to some light be needed. Knowing that no one was home, Aubrey stood waiting. She reserved the evening for this, and it's not like there was a caring and worried husband waiting for her to back home if she was late. She looked at her left hand free of the pair of rings that lived there for years.

After a thirty minute wait, Aubrey saw a car slowing down and entering the number 56's driveway. The woman's heart raced and she put a hand to her chest, trying unsuccessfully to contain it. The image of a redheaded woman getting out of the car did not help. Aubrey bit her lower lip as she watched the woman helping a smaller redhead out of the back seat, carrying her own purse and a Dora The Explorer small backpack. Chloe looked at the sky and Aubrey knew she was also examining the possible storm before following the little girl's trail - who was speaking enthusiastically to the older woman about something Aubrey couldn't listen - to the porch, opening the front door and disappearing into the house that now began to emit light from its windows.

Aubrey desperately wanted to get out of the car and run to the door, knock and see Chloe closely, this was why she had spent months looking for information about her best friend from college. The blonde had to admit, the internet was definitely helpful in the task. Finding Chloe Beale's page on Facebook - social network that Aubrey refused to participate when she was in college - she discovered an absurd amount of stuff. Chloe worked as a teacher in an elementary school, lived in the suburbs of the city, had a daughter named Emma - who was a miniature of herself and _the most adorable kid in the entire world_ as Chloe descibred in a caption of a picture of herself with her daughter - and she was single. Even knowing all this, Aubrey couldn't send a friend request, deciding to go to Chloe's house personally and try not to look like a stalker. So she waited another twenty minutes after Chloe's arrival to get out of the car and move toward the front door.

Aubrey looked at the sky almost nightly stamped with the charged gray clouds, but paid more attention in the movement of her legs, because she wasn't so sure she could trust her inferior members. She put a hand on the black overcoat's pocket that hid her work clothes and the other nervously clutched the strap of her purse. Practicing the answers to the questions that Chloe would possibly ask, she climbed the porch steps, careful to not step on a block built with a dozen Legos that did not make any sense to her. Stopping by the front of the door, her heart seemed like it could be heard miles away. She hoped that Chloe did not hear it or it would be humiliating. _It's just Chloe_ , she tried to tell herself. But was this very thought made her heart squeeze a surprisingly painful way. Deciding to not think anymore, her hand came out of the overcoat's pocket and politely knocked three times on the wooden door painted in white.

She heard a sound of running feet on the floor, a voice saying something indistinct to her and finally feet approaching the door. If there has been some time since Junior Year she thought her stomach could betray her again, that was the moment. The door opened and she waited Chloe's eyes to meet hers, which did not take long.

"Bree! Oh my God, it's been so long!" Chloe's blue eyes revealed pure pleasure and the smile on her face was the most precious one combined with the way the nickname that only her was allowed to use rolled in her tongue, made Aubrey's blood boil under her skin.

The redhead threw herself into the tallest blonde's arms, and Aubrey would find it very unexpected if wasn't in Chloe Beale's door that she had appeared after six years of separation. Aubrey tightened her arms around Chloe and the redhead did no differently. She tilted her head then her nose was buried in the red locks, and in that moment, the blonde pretended that there was no separation and that she just got back to their dorm after a long day and exhausting classes. And at that moment, she could only think of how it was like coming home after a long journey.

When they split, Aubrey smiled shyly, wishing so much to say something but at the same time too lost in the sight of Chloe before her. She was still beautiful, and Aubrey did not know why she was surprised by that. She was more mature but the years have been kind. She was still dressed in the clothes Aubrey saw her arriving earlier but without her shoes. Chloe tilted her head, smiling, and that was when Aubrey realized she was staring.

"Sorry." She smiled nervously. "It's been so long."

"Indeed. We have so much to talk! What have you been doing all this time?" Chloe smiled moving away from the door to let her old friend in. "Please." Chloe said and Aubrey obeyed and followed her by the house. The redheaded helped her take off her coat and hang her purse, and the blonde couldn't help but blush when Chloe praised her choice of clothing.

It was a cozy little home. The walls were painted in light colors and the furniture pieces didn't matched. There were photos on the shelfs with books and some toys, and also on the fireplace console. The sofa was huge and seemed to be accommodating the entire cast of Toy Story, with politely seated stuffed animals and dolls. The TV in the living room was tuned on a cartoon and that's when Aubrey noticed the little red-haired figure in the middle of the room.

"Oh, I have someone to introduce to you." Chloe told Aubrey. "Emma, baby," She called the little girl, who stopped organizing the tea party on the coffee table and looked at the visitor beside her mother "This is Aubrey, a great friend of mommy. Why don't you say hi to her?"

Aubrey kept Emma's glance and realized the little Beale's eyes were in a green tone, very different from her mother's blue one.

"Hi, Miss Aubrey!" Emma greeted before returning to the tea party.

Aubrey tried to look surprised that Chloe had a daughter, but he saw the redhead did not expect that from her and just smiled at her old dear friend. Of course, Chloe having a daughter was a particularly big change, but she found herself not really minding it.

"She's lovely." Aubrey said to Chloe, who nodded watching her daughter petting a stuffed monkey.

Chloe smiled back at Aubrey and seemed to have an idea.

"Bree, you're staying for dinner." It was not a question but a statement. "We have so much to talk, I want to know everything about you, I missed you so much!" Chloe went wandering into the kitchen, pulling Aubrey awkwardly by her hand.

 _Me too_ , Aubrey wanted to say, but she couldn't.

"C'mon! Tell me everything!" Chloe asked, beginning to cut the carrots into slices.

Aubrey opened her mouth but closed it. What did Chloe wanted to know? What did she wanted to tell Chloe? What could she say without start crying right there in the middle of Chloe's messed and cozy kitchen with Emma's drawings watching from the refrigerator's door?

"Do you want me to help with that?" Aubrey asked, indicating the task that Chloe was doing. The redhead nodded and Aubrey took off her blazer, hanging it carefully in a desk chair, knowing that Chloe wouldn't mind. She rolled up her white shirt's sleeves and washed her hands before starting to slice the carrots. Chloe was already on the other side of the kitchen, on the stove, working on something that Aubrey could not see. The blonde thought perhaps that had distracted Chloe from her life.

"I'm still waiting for your news." Chloe said in a teasing tone.

"Well, I went to law school after Barden," Aubrey began after a sigh "I graduated, I started working in my father's company. Got married meanwhile, but we recently splited up." Chloe gave her a sympathetic smile over shoulder and the blonde paused for a few seconds, knowing there was nothing more to be said. "And now I'm here visiting you."

Chloe was working on cooking pasta and was now running down the water used to boil it.

"And you?" She asked Chloe after she decided there wasn't anything more she wanted or should share – by now.

"Well, I am an elementary school teacher now." Chloe said and Aubrey smiled with the pride in her voice. "I also got married. But it also didn't work." She added, picking the carrots cut by Aubrey and keeping cooking dinner. "Although my marriage gave me Emma, who is everything to me."

Aubrey smiled approaching Chloe. She studied Chloe's profile as she finished dinner, feeling the tranquility. Suddenly it was as if there wasn't a world outside that house, there wasn't a storm coming, or an empty house in the other side of the town, or a divorce or her career. At that moment it was just like it was six years ago and she was risking being caught staring at her best friend.

"Emma, dear," Chloe called, setting the table with Aubrey's help. "Go wash your hands, dinner's ready."

Aubrey heard Emma's hurried footsteps on the stairs and smiled when she thought Chloe wasn't seeing.

"So, no children?" Chloe asked, putting the last dish on the dining table. Aubrey just shook her head and Chloe, PhD in Aubrey Posen, knew that she should not push that matter.

(Aubrey never really thought children were a possibility in her marriage. It takes a real home to raise a kid.)

They sat down and soon Emma joined them. Dinner was quiet and full of conversation. Aubrey heard Chloe tell about how she still maintained contact with Beca and Jesse, and with the other Bellas (Aubrey regretted not maintaining contact with them almost as much she regretted not doing it with Chloe) and about her job.

Aubrey also learned many things about the smaller redhead's life: Emma was four; she loved bears; her favorite color was yellow; she already had chosen what she wanted for Christmas that year; and she could sing all the songs from Frozen. Chloe watched the interaction between her blond friend and her daughter with an amused smile.

After dinner, Emma was dispensed to resume her tea party in the living room while the two women took care of the dishes. Now that all the trivial part of their separation had been cleared, a heavy silence just like the clouds that still was hanging over the city had felt between them. Aubrey wanted to say she was sorry she had abandoned their friendship but also wanted to blame Chloe for not making an effort to try to reconnect, but gave up knowing that both alternatives would sound stupid out loud.

After the last dish being put on its place, Chloe turned to Aubrey, who had just dried her hands, and for the first time on that evening they were looking into each other's eyes and recognizing the gulf that existed between them. And Aubrey thought it was just an impression, but in that exchange of glances seemed that Chloe knew exactly what was going on in the blonde's life and every word she had saved for the redhead. _I'm sorry, these years have been a huge void without you_. Aubrey was sure it was not just an impression when Chloe came over and hugged Aubrey's torso, putting her head under the taller woman's chin, who immediately wrapped her arms around the redhead.

"I'm sorry, Bree." Chloe lifted her head to kiss Aubrey's chin and laid her head back on the another woman's shoulder. Aubrey kissed the crown covered in red hair and closed her eyes, feeling every fiber of her body vibrate in an emotion that she did not felt in a long time.

"Miss Aubrey!" Emma called from the kitchen door and Aubrey looked up, not splitting from Chloe, who also had made no effort to get away from the blonde. "You are invited to my tea party at - Mom, what time is it?"

The two women laughed at the little girl's adorableness. Chloe looked at the watch on her wrist.

"Seven and forty two, honey." Chloe smiled maternally at the girl and Aubrey thought it was the purest thing she'd ever seen in her entire life.

"Okay! Miss Aubrey you are invited to my tea party at seven forty-two!" Emma said and ran into the living room, but returned to pull Aubrey's hand. "What happens to be now!"

Aubrey took a last look at Chloe who was chuckling when she disappeared from the kitchen.

The tea party at seven forty-two ended at eight, when Chloe asked Aubrey to wait in the living room as she tucked Emma to sleep. The blonde checked her cell phone but nothing was waiting for her. Maybe it was a silly thought, but the silence in Chloe's house was more tolerable than the silence at her home.

A few minutes later, Chloe came downstairs.

"She asked me to invite you to another tea party with her." Chloe said. "And that time, with real muffins! She really liked you, Miss Aubrey!" Aubrey smiled openly. Chloe's daughter was adorable.

She sat next to Aubrey on the couch, still occupied by some forgotten stuffed animals. She threw her legs over Aubrey's lap and the lawyer put an arm between Chloe's back and the couch, summing up the traditional position they used to be when they were together on a couch. So many years later, so many things were different now, but it was still the same. That thought made Aubrey turn her head to look at Chloe, who was already looking at her.

"I'm so glad you came back." Chloe said softly above a whisper, but with the closeness that she was from Aubrey, she knew that the blonde had heard her words. Chloe seemed hesitant before asking, "How did you find me?"

"Facebook." They both laughed and Chloe wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck.

They were in a comfortable silence. A hand of Chloe traced random patterns in Aubrey's ear and the other was linked to one of the blonde's in Chloe's lap.

"I don't want to miss it." Aubrey said quietly. "Again."

Chloe pulled Aubrey's face so she could look into the blonde's eyes.

"We will take care so this won't happen." Chloe said and the phrase was so true that Aubrey felt it go through all the pores of her skin.

Aubrey smiled. Not the polite smile. Or the timid. Or the uncertain. That rare smile that showed white and straight teeth.

The evening stretched and Aubrey had to go. She picked up the blazer in the kitchen and Chloe helped to wear her overcoat in the lobby. The redhead insisted on taking her to the car and the two walked side by side to Aubrey's SUV. When they reached the vehicle, a drop of water fell from the sky on Aubrey's cheek and she looked up only to see the clouds from earlier were now fulfilling their promise.

"See you soon?" Chloe asked, not caring about the drops that began to fall and quickly begin to soak her skin.

Aubrey looked at the redhead and could not remember had seen her so uncertain. Chloe Beale could be anything in this world: sensitive, emotional, broken, incoherent, but uncertain was the only thing that did not fit her profile. Perhaps in that moment they have exchanged roles because Aubrey had a lot of certain of what she wanted to do.

Forgetting the past few years, recent disagreements and the last moments before everything went inconsistent, Aubrey stepped forward and pulled Chloe's waist, bringing the woman close and their lips together in a chaste kiss in the beginning of a storm. Chloe put her arms around the blonde's neck, deepening their kiss, ignoring that her clothes were getting soaked.

"Soon." Aubrey murmured against Chloe's lips that smiled before leaning in for another kiss.

Reluctantly, Aubrey broke the hug and got into the car, watching Chloe run through the rain to the security of her home.

Soon was good. Soon was a promise. Soon was the end of a time that should never had existed.

She could not wait for that soon.


	2. I want you to stay

Six o'clock. Aubrey fixed her hair by the foyer mirror. She thought she looked decent in that expensive black dress and high heels. She grabbed her purse and keys after putting on her coat – it was October and it was getting colder each passing day - and walked out the house. She said she would be picking Chloe in thirty minutes, and she would never forgive herself if she got late for their first official date.

It had been a week after she showed up at Chloe's door, and three days after that she asked Chloe to go on a date with her. Yes, three days only. She could not wait any more time without Chloe. And well, why would she? Chloe's enthusiastic answer to going to dinner on that Thursday night was all she needed to reassure herself that maybe she had done the right thing.

She was knocking at Chloe's door four minutes earlier than planned, when a teenage girl opened the door.

"Hello!" the girl greeted. She was short. Short like Beca Mitchell. But she was too perky and her blonde wild curls and flowery purple dress didn't resemble Beca Mitchell at all. "You must be Aubrey."

"Um- I am." Aubrey gave her polite smile without really having time to ask herself who was that girl before the girl spoke again.

"I'm Gisele, I'm Emma's babysitter. Please come in, Chloe is almost ready." She allowed Aubrey in. "Emma is probably more eager to see you than Chloe is, though." She laughed in a bubbly way, that made Aubrey think that Chloe and this high schooler girl are probably something close to best friends.

The comment did cause some questions to pop in Aubrey's head, though. Was Chloe not eager to see her? What if Chloe was somewhere else in her life in which Aubrey didn't fit anymore? But what about that kiss? And this date?

"But Chloe is very very eager to see you, I mean. I didn't mean to, y'know, say that she wasn't. Chloe has been talking about it for days, believe me. I just mean that Emma apparently liked you very much because she said you are better than I am at tea parties, and-"

"Thank you, Gisele." Aubrey interrupted that girl's rambling, trying to be kind doing so, because it really helped with her silly doubts. "I got it." She gave the girl a reassuring smile.

Gisele smiled back. She had dimples.

The living room was just as much a children's territory as when Aubrey went there for the first time. A cartoon Aubrey never heard speak of (not that she knew a lot about cartoons, but don't kids watch Duck Tales anymore?) was on the TV. The coffee table had some blank pages and crayons on it and Emma was sitting by it, very focused on her art. She was so tiny, but maybe that was because she was four, and Aubrey wasn't used to see a lot of humans in that age.

"Emma, look who's here!" Gisele said and Emma's head turned to the living room's entrance.

"Miss Aubrey!" Emma shrieked running to Aubrey and hugging her legs. Chloe's daughter was a hugger. Like mother, like daughter.

"Hello, Emma. You can drop the 'miss', you know." Aubrey laughed, resting her hand on the little girl's shoulder.

She made small talk with her, promising she would come and have another tea party soon, and made a note to herself to ask Chloe if she could bring some chocolate cookies for the event. Aubrey was not the best with kids, but Emma just made her feel like she could be, and that she wanted to be.

Emma was explaining one of her drawings, asking Gisele and Aubrey – she did drop the 'Miss', as she was just waiting for that permission her entire life - for reviews, when Chloe appeared on the stairs. Aubrey was so sorry she stopped listening what Emma was saying, but the vision before her almost brought her to tears.

Chloe was gorgeous. She wasn't wearing expensive clothes, or a lot of make-up, or anything overproduced. She was gorgeous because she was born that way and Aubrey thought that each passing day she was getting more and more and more stunning. Or maybe Aubrey only thought that because there wasn't a single day she didn't thought about how beautiful Chloe was, inside and out. Her deep blue dress matched her eyes and Aubrey redecided her favorite color in that moment.

"Aubrey, I'm so sorry I'm late, I got stuck in school and-"

"It's alright, Chlo', don't worry, we're still on time." Aubrey reassured, getting on her feet and hugging Chloe. "Shall we?"

"Yes, of course." Chloe kissed her cheek and Aubrey felt her face blushing.

At the door, Chloe said goodnight to Emma, covering her with kisses, and then made some last reminding to Gisele, who paid keen attention while holding Emma to her hip and seemed very unbothered to the mess the little girl was making trying to brush her hair with a doll's comb.

"I'm worried about Gisele's hair." Aubrey said in the car, as Chloe buckled her seat bell.

Chloe laughed and assured Aubrey it would be fine.

She talked a little about Gisele. The girl lived next door and was a very clever kid attending art high school and aiming to study architecture in college even if she was just a sophomore. Gisele was fond of Emma, and did babysitting for Chloe since they moved there, last year.

"She reminds me of myself when I had her age."

"Yes." Aubrey says. "We were very little older than her when we met."

"Insane, right?" Chloe answers, looking out the window. "We were so young. And now we're here."

Aubrey watched her briefly. The city lights passing by her side through the glass were especially beautiful that night, like they were trying to compete with the redhead. She was there, ten years later from the day they met, two years away from being thirty. Chloe was a constant in her mind, since the first time she entered their shared college dorm room, but not in her life. She prayed – Aubrey was not a prayer, but this is an exception, a very good one – that this is just the very first page of the chapter when her life mends with Chloe's again. She used to think it could only happen in her dreams. But, hey, look at who is taking that gorgeous redhead on a date.

"We are here." Aubrey said, one hand on the steer wheel, other moving to touch Chloe's knee, lightly, and sharing a smile with the woman when she finds her eyes.

"We are, Bree. We really are."

* * *

It feels so right, for the first time. They are not in the doubt of this being just a college fling, they are not expecting the other one to drop everything and runaway. Of course, they talk about the expectations they have now and work on the hard feelings left the last time they saw each other, still in college. There's a little bit of pain, but there's a lot of effort put into mend things back together.

See, their relationship in college was something they didn't really talked about. Bothe had those obvious feelings for each other and they got lost in the whole experimenting thing and ignored that they had everything to become something great, something for real. Then graduation came and they parted ways with reluctant goodbyes, forcing each other to live without the other. Both found new ways of living and they lost contact. They took the fact that none of them really stopped thinking about each and that they found their ways back to each now and were fully invested in making it work, as green light to their feelings.

And Aubrey is so happy that they are doing it right, that they are not rushing, that they are taking time on their feelings. She is also very happy to hear that she wasn't the only one thinking about what they could've had if things were different and she is also very happy to hear that Chloe is ready to a fresh start as much as she is. Aubrey can't stop smiling for weeks.

They go on dates, they talk on the phone, Aubrey goes to Chloe's almost every week night, - since Emma is in the scene, Chloe going to Aubrey's is very unlikely - and it doesn't even feel weird. She helps cooking dinner, she washes the dishes after, she listens to Chloe's work day, she listens to Emma's stories, she talks a little bit about her work, she brings cookies for Emma, she teaches her make an origami boat. It feels almost like things were never different.

It's not until a very rainy Friday night that they talk about the elephant in the room. Not an elephant at all, more like a four-year-old called Emma. Aubrey calls it a night and grabs her keys, but Chloe suggests she stays. Aubrey is hesitant and Chloe feels it, because, of course, she knows Aubrey and her body language, her eyes' movements, the way she pouts when she is thinking too hard about something.

"We should talk about it, Aubrey." Chloe says, "I've been avoiding it because I was afraid I would scare you, but we need to have the talk."

The Talk. Aubrey knew very well what Chloe meant. She nodded with her head and sat by the sofa. She was relieved that Chloe was able to read her so well. She knew they would have to talk about it at some point.

"Everything is so different now, we're older and we're serious about it. We've gone through bullshit, and we got back to each other. This past month has been so amazing with you." Chloe began. "But it's not just us anymore, because now I have Emma, and I know you are perfectly aware of that."

"So you know why I'm hesitant about spending the night here."

"Yes, and I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure it wouldn't be a problem. I care about Emma more than anything in this life and protecting her is all I do." Chloe said, kindly, taking Aubrey's hand. "But I've talked to her, Aubrey. She is so okay about this, she is probably handling it better than we are." She laughed and gave Aubrey's hand a squeeze, watching her chuckling slightly. "Of course, she is too young to understand some things, but we will all be fine. She said you're a prince."

"A prince?" Aubrey chuckled.

"Yeah, you know, the one who comes and saves the princess - in case, me." She shrugged. "I don't think we should keep using that term, though, is very heteronormative."

"True." Aubrey brought Chloe's hand to her lips. "What about girlfriend?"

Chloe pretended to be thinking but her lips were betraying her with a smile.

"Yes, sounds aca-awesome, right?" She melted when Aubrey kissed the palm of her hand.

"Sounds aca-perfect." Aubrey said, pulling her gently for a kiss.

The redhead smiled so hard it ruined the kiss, but Aubrey didn't mind, she just kept kissing her face, peppering every single piece of blushed cheek she could, very much like Chloe does when they kiss goodbye and she is not fond of the idea of Aubrey leaving. The thought that tonight she is staying made her pull herself up and straddle Aubrey on to the couch and kiss her full on the lips, deepening the kiss when Aubrey allowed, feeling the blonde's arms around her waist, slipping her hand in the blond locks she loved so dearly. Since they met again, they hadn't gone beyond some hard make out sessions, and Chloe decided to keep things like that, at least for tonight. She softened the kiss, finishing it with a peck on Aubrey's swollen lips and trailed chaste kisses through her neck, until her face was hidden in the blonde's neck. She felt so absorbed by Aubrey, so in love. She did not say tough, not yet.

"Chloe, I'm here, I need you to understand it." Aubrey said, after a few minutes in silence, almost in a whisper. "I'm here for Emma, too. I want it all."

Chloe pulled back to look in her eyes.

"Aubrey-"

"I do, Chloe. I do." Aubrey reaffirmed and Chloe thought she never saw the blonde looking so serious about something, not even about the Bella's oath.

The redhead caressed Aubrey's face. Such a beautiful woman she became. Her eyes were kinder, her smile came more easily. She was falling for someone new and at the same time falling all over again for someone she knew like the back of her hand. She was falling for Aubrey and it felt like knowing all the words to your old favorite song.

"Thank you for saying it, Bree, it means so much to me." Chloe whispered back. "I want you here for all of it, too."

A watery smile broke out on Aubrey's face and a few tears dropped when she pulled Chloe for a long hug. All of it, with Chloe. That's the twist of fate that only happened in her wildest dreams.

"I've dreamed of it for so, so long, Chlo'." She whispered and Chloe doubted if she knew she had said it out loud.

"I'm here, baby, for real."

And, suddenly, Aubrey didn't knew how life could get better than this.


	3. In the morning

"She said chocolate chips." Chloe said, entering her room and changing into her nightclothes.

"No blueberries?" Aubrey asks back, without raising her eyes from her laptop's screen.

"No blueberries!" Chloe answered from the bathroom.

Aubrey kept working on finishing revising her notes for the court date she had the next morning. She was so invented in that case, she washed the dishes speaking about it. Her sexual assault cases got her even more lively about her profession.

"Oh, do we have chocolate enough? I will probably have to pick it up in the grocery shop during my morning run."

Emma had become fond of Aubrey's pancakes. In the morning after Aubrey spent the night there for the first time there, she decided to make a good impression on the tiny Beale and make her famous pancakes for breakfast. It's been months since and now every time Aubrey sleeps over, Emma gets eager for the next morning's breakfast. It's a habit that Aubrey is not interested to break, even if Chloe insists that she doesn't have to do it.

"Baby, it's okay if you can't do it this time." Chloe said, crawling on bed beside her girlfriend, getting herself comfortable between the sheets. "You have a lot on your mind, I can make them."

"You? Making pancakes?" Aubrey took her eyes off the screen to look up at Chloe.

Aubrey was so sexy wearing her reading glasses that Chloe almost forgave her mock tone. You know, just ignore it and straddle her and kiss her deeply, and move on to her neck, leaving marks all over her collarbone, and-

"They're not that bad." Chloe defended herself, putting aside her distracting thoughts.

"They are, love. Sorry." Aubrey said back turning her attention to her laptop again. "And it's just pancakes, I can handle it."

Chloe kept looking at Aubrey's side profile. She was embracing the whole being a part of Emma's life thing so bad. It was adorable. She learned Emma's preferences, allergies and fears. She made everything she could to put a smile on the little girl's face. And Chloe didn't expect any less from Aubrey Posen. She has to exceed in everything she does, it's a personal thing.

Emma had a father, of course, but it's not like he was around a lot. He lived across the country and flew occasionally to check on her, called sometimes, helped with the costs of the child. His marriage with Chloe lasted just enough to Emma be born, by her fifth month of life they had already split up, amicably. So yes, if someone she trusted and loved very much was willing to help with Emma and be a part of her life, she was down for it. If they were Aubrey, her college best friend, a trusting, careful, responsible woman, the girl she never really stopped loving, who came back to her life like a sending of God himself, then hell yes, why not give Emma the chance to have such a good influence around?

She watched as Aubrey took off her glasses, carefully closed her laptop, and put both, in her purse before coming back to bed, joining Chloe between the sheets.

"Are you sure?" Chloe asked again, settling her head on her pillow.

Aubrey sighed, supporting herself on her elbow and leaning over Chloe. She kissed her lips and pulled back to look at the woman underneath her with utterly devotion in her eyes. Chloe is sure that if she wasn't laying on a very soft bed, she would've melted into a puddle.

"I am. Don't worry, ok?" She said, breaking Chloe's thoughts, and kissed her lips again. "Good night, Chlo'."

"Good night, Bree." Chloe smiled sweetly at her girlfriend.

The way Aubrey could go from super lawyer accepting pro-bono cases of sexual assault to super girlfriend waking up earlier in the morning to make your daughter chocolate chipped pancakes in a matter of seconds was just about 2% of her charm.

* * *

When Chloe woke up in the morning, Aubrey was not in bed. Of course.

She got up and walked to Emma's bedroom, only to find her unmade bed empty. Of course.

"Why not?" Chloe heard Emma's voice asking as she got downstairs.

"Because," Aubrey's voice had the sound of frying pancakes as background. "I like my house."

"Yeah, but you like in here too." Emma replied.

Aubrey didn't reply. The sound of a pancake flipping was all Chloe heard.

"Good morning, girls." Chloe greeted walking in the kitchen.

Aubrey's face accused how relieved she was to see her girlfriend. Emma jumped into Chloe's arms and kissed her mother's cheek, seeming to forget the very serious conversation she was having with Aubrey. Chloe made a mental note as she kissed Aubrey to question her about it later.

"Ems, out of the bed that early? This must be a dream." Chloe mocked her daughter's difficult relationship with waking up to school.

"No, it's just Aubrey's pancakes." Emma replied quickly.

"That's fair." Chloe said, putting her down.

The blonde woman was wearing black leggings and one of Chloe's tank tops. Aubrey kept a few clothes there, so Chloe didn't know if she had done it on purpose or if she really thought that the blouse was one of her own. Her hair was in a ponytail and seeing that the pancakes were indeed with chocolate chips, Chloe knew she had gone to her morning run – a habit she had since when they met in college. Sometimes she wonders at what time her girlfriend awakes because she really has no idea. Five o'clock-ish? If Chloe had not spent so many hours of her life appreciating how peaceful and relaxed Aubrey looks in her sleep, she would wonder if the blonde sleeps, at all.

Aubrey passed Chloe her coffee before sitting by the kitchen island with the Beales. Emma was absolutely enamored with her pancakes, so Aubrey and Chloe kept chatting.

"I was thinking, maybe we could all go to that cute pizza place tonight." Chloe suggested.

"I'm sorry, baby, I'm having dinner with my parents." Aubrey said.

Chloe had met them during college. She knew they could be a little hard on Aubrey, but that they truly loved her and respected her choices. Aubrey told them about Chloe a few months ago when they started dating and they proposed a dinner, to see the redhead again and meet Emma, but Aubrey suggested them to give all the situation a little bit of time.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about it. Say hi to them for me." Chloe replied. "And maybe we could schedule that dinner with them for next month?"

"Are you sure?" Aubrey asked.

"Yeah, I think we're okay." Chloe paused, sipping her coffee. "Emma will do anything if you promise her these pancakes," She gestured to her plate, with 3/4 of her third pancake resting there. "So I think she will also be okay there."

Aubrey chuckled lightly and ruffled Emma's hair, who was still very oblivious to the world outside her pancakes and orange juice. Chloe smiled at the sight.

"So, after your parents, are you coming here?" Chloe asked, returning the conversation with her girlfriend.

"I don't think so, I really should go home. Make sure I wasn't robbed or something like that." Aubrey said.

Emma grumbled.

"I'm sorry?" Chloe asked in confusion an explanation for her daughter behavior.

Emma dropped her fork onto her plate after shoving into her mouth her last piece of pancake.

"Mommy, why can't Aubrey just sleep here all the nights?" Emma asked, very seriously.

"Because-" Chloe was caught a little by surprise, but now the conversation she overheard earlier made sense. " Because she likes her house." She turned to Aubrey who caught her glance and knew she had heard her answer from before.

"Yes, she told me that, but I said that she also likes in here, so it doesn't make sense." Emma replied in a very sure tone.

Chloe was curious. And shocked. She and Aubrey never really had spoken about living together. It was so ahead of them, they were still getting used to this sleep arrangement. But now, she could imagine. Because, honestly, if it wasn't for Emma, she probably would already be thinking about that. (This would be unthinkable with anyone else, Chloe is very extroverted but she loves having her space, but she lived with Aubrey all her college years, so it was just easy to share everything with her. The whole being with Aubrey but living in different places thing is an actually new thing in their relationship.)

"Baby, why do you want Aubrey to live in here so bad?"

"Because then she can make me pancakes everyday."

"I feel so used." Aubrey said in a fake-hurt tone. Chloe turned to her, like realizing just now she was there all that time.

"That's the only reason you want Aubrey to live in here?"

"And because she helps you with the dishes." Emma replied.

"Now I definitely feel used." Aubrey said.

"But also because when she's here we can play Twist. And explain to her all the princess movies."

Aubrey and Chloe exchanged a look and took their time explaining to Emma that it's still very soon for Aubrey to live there all the time, but that soon she could very well do it, but not now. After all the questions the little girl had about this, and all the explanations, Aubrey promised her she would be at that house as much as she could and make her lots of pancakes every morning. This propose seemed to satisfy Emma, because she agreed to get ready for school without any resistance.

* * *

As Aubrey buttoned her shirt in front of Chloe's mirror, her girlfriend sneaked her arms from behind and embraced her tightly. Aubrey smiled to Chloe through the reflection and the smiles Chloe gave her back made her feel like she had her own ray of sunshine.

"She adores you." Chloe says, lips against Aubrey's cladded with the shirt shoulder.

"She adores my pancakes." Aubrey chuckles.

"Well, I can't deny that." Chloe laughs, laying the side of her face on Aubrey's back.

Aubrey turns to her girlfriends and kisses her unexpectedly.

"What was that for?" Chloe asks, amused, when Aubrey pulls back.

"I don't know." Aubrey shrugs. "I just love you so much, Chloe."

"I love you too." Chloe says, getting on her tip toes to kiss Aubrey.

Aubrey used to smell like an expensive French perfume (which name Choe didn't knew how to pronounce), even back in college. Now, Chloe thinks Aubrey smells more like chocolate chipped pancakes, the kid's shampoo Emma uses and clean bedsheets. Aubrey smells more like home.

"Oh, and I love your daughter too." Aubrey says and Chloe thinks she's lucky that Aubrey's grip in her waist is firm and her own arms are strongly wrapped around the taller woman's neck, because the phrase made her knees weak. "Even if she thinks I'm some kind of domestic elf."

* * *

 **Hey! I would love to hear what you guys are thinking about the story and maybe some prompts?**


	4. Once upon a dream

"They're exhibiting Sleeping Beauty in that park with outdoor movies this Friday." Aubrey tells Chloe, while checking her phone.

Aubrey, Chloe and Emma are hanging out in Aubrey's living room. It's Sunday and Aubrey cooked lunch for them and they decided to watch some TV after that. Emma was so agitated about the fact that she was at Aubrey's house, she wasted her entire energy running around until she collapsed asleep on her mother's chest.

Chloe is laying on the sofa, with her feet on Aubrey's lap and Emma asleep against her. It's so peaceful and they speak low to not disturb the little redhead, they say, but it's more because it feels more intimate since Emma is a heavy sleeper.

"Maybe we could take Emma." Aubrey said.

"It's at night." Chloe said, without taking her eyes off the TV, running her hand absently through her daughter's hair.

"I know."

"We've only took her on day dates."

Their first date with Emma was at a fair that was happening in the city and Emma absolutely adored the carrousel. They went in others equally child-friendly and the little girl was over the moon with the idea of being taken on dates even if she didn't knew exactly what it means: if includes Aubrey and going out of the house, it is a date. For her, even grocery shopping counts. Unless…

"Dinner at your parents doesn't count, even she knows that." Chloe reminded her.

"I know."

(Their first dinner at Aubrey's parents was an important mark at their relationship. Mr. and Mrs. Posen looked older than the last time Chloe had saw them, and it looked like they were less severe. They were very cordial, the dinner ran peacefully and by the end of the night, Aubrey's parent were already enamored by Emma, as the little charming thing she is. Time does wonderful things. Time brought Aubrey and Chloe back together, and, apparently, time made Mr. and Mrs. Posen see how amazing their daughter is, and how much she deserves happiness, even if she gets it in her own terms. They set a date to the next dinner after that one, and it became a monthly thing.)

Chloe looked up to Aubrey, who was already looking at her.

"She will love it." Chloe smiled softly. "And sleep halfway through it, but for sure, she will love it."

Aubrey chuckled softly and ran a delicate finger against Emma's tiny heel. She saved the date to her schedule.

* * *

Planning was Aubrey's thing. She left the law firm earlier the usual that Friday. She went home and prepared a picnic basket, filling it with sandwiches, fruits, juice, candy, chocolate and cookies (the M&Ms ones, Emma's favorites). She picked up a picnic rug from her closet, that she didn't remember buying and probably was one of her many wedding gifts, - as if her ex-husband and her would ever think about going on a picnic together - and a few cushions from her sofa, so watching a movie sitting on the ground of a park wouldn't be so uncomfortable. She put all of it in the trunk of her car and dressed herself in capri-jeans, a sweater and a jacket, because the night was going to be chilly. She drove to Chloe's in time to hurry them up and guarantee that they would not be late. She helped Emma get dressed and choose which stuffed animal she would take as her date to the movie so Chloe could get herself ready faster. She picked up Emma's car seat from Chloe's car so Emma would be safe in her own. She hurried Chloe up and they all went to the car, without any delays. Aubrey smiled all the drive to the park, satisfied with her planning, and kissed Chloe's knuckles as she drove.

Emma made very clear as she chatted from the backseat how excited she was that she was going on a night date like mommy and Aubrey and not staying at home with Gisele this time.

They got there in time to get a nice spot on the field. Under a tree, they settled their picnic rug and had some snacks while waiting for the movie. Apparently, a lot of people had interest on watching an old Disney animation movie. Families, groups of teenagers and couples took their spots in front of the huge screen with their picnic baskets e rugs, coolers and beach chairs. Aubrey commented that they should had brought some of those but Chloe said that the fun was sitting on the ground and she let it go. They put their cushions against the tree and leaned against it. Aubrey was surprised that she wasn't uncomfortable at all.

"It's so huge!" Emma exclaimed, looking at the screen before the film began. "Mommy, can we have one of these at home?"

Aubrey smiled looking at the little girl stand in front of them, staring at the screen. Kids are so easily surprised, it's beautiful to watch. Having one those around, feels like you are discovering the world all over again through their little eyes.

"Do you think one of these fit at home?" Chloe asked, playfully.

Emma seemed to think for a while before answering.

"No…but it may fit in Aubrey's backyard."

"Last week you wanted a pool in my backyard, now you want a this?" Aubrey said, containing her laugh. "You have to decide, honey."

Chloe smiled softly at Aubrey using the endearing term for Emma. Aubrey is so natural around Emma, sometimes it almost feels like she raised her for years and not just had been around for a few months and that was still getting used to the idea of being around a child.

"What about a dinosaur?"

"This is getting really hard to conciliate, Ems." Aubrey chuckled.

When the movie began and the park light lowered, Emma ran to sit between Aubrey's legs, like it was the only option. Chloe and Aubrey exchanged a look – Aubrey surprised, Chloe amused with Aubrey's face. The blonde finally seemed to relax, and leaned all her weight against the cushions, causing Emma to practically lay against her, and put her arms around her tiny body. Chloe thinks Aubrey didn't even noticed, but she was holding the little girl like a teddy bear the whole time. She took a picture of it: "Emma chose the most comfortable spot to watch the movie #cuuute", was the caption of it on her Instagram. After, she tucked herself against Aubrey's side and focused on the movie.

Emma's energy lasted until the last thirty minutes of movie until she fell asleep in that position and they only noticed she was asleep because she stopped repeating the lines.

"Don't move." Chloe said to Aubrey when the movie was over and the people were standing up and gathering their things. "She's asleep."

Aubrey then looked down at Emma and Chloe almost squealed over the little smile the blonde had on her face. She gathered their things while Aubrey carefully took off her jacket and tucked Emma in it before carrying her up. Emma instantly moved in her sleep, putting her arms around Aubrey's neck and hiding her face in the crook of her shoulder.

"I told you. Asleep as a rock." Chloe said after Aubrey buckled the kid up on the car seat.

"At least she enjoyed the whole going out at night thing. She will probably brag about it to Gisele." Aubrey said turning the car on.

"Yes, you know she will." Chloe said, looking back at the little girl and softly caressing her hair. "Do you realize how you're absolutely mom material?" She said turning back to the blonde as they left the parking lot.

Aubrey seemed truly caught by surprise. She took a few seconds before speaking.

"You think so?"

"I know so." Chloe smiled, entirely enchanted by the fact that Aubrey exists, she's there, by her side, she chose to be by her side, right there after sitting on a park for two hours serving as a pillow for your daughter. And the thought the Chloe has the possibility of a future with this woman is enough to make her smile just a little bit larger.

"Well, I have been practicing." Aubrey answered with a smirk.

"I've heard." Chloe played along.

Aubrey stopped by a red light, and turned to face Chloe then turned to the backseat to watch the sleepy little girl. Her smile was soft, something you would never see in the Aubrey leader of the Bellas, or the Aubrey lawyer, this was a new version of the blonde.

"Do you think she will ever let us go on a night date without her ever again?" Aubrey asked, with a concerned frown, as the light turned green, making Chloe laugh.

* * *

 **Hey! I hope you guys are enjoying the story. I would love to hear you guys about it, so, if you can, leave some feedback and prompts!**


	5. You'll be alright

"Aaaaaand he is taller than you." Emma finished her long list of compliments about her father.

"Do I outdo your father in anything at all?" Aubrey asks the little girl, trying to not sound annoyed.

"I don't think so." Emma said in a beat.

"He sounds great, I'll give you that." She said.

Aubrey tied up Emma's pink sneakers and the little girl murmured a thank you before running down the stairs. The blonde picked up the little backpack Chloe had prepared with Emma's things and chased after her, noticing with a look by the window that the sun was already gone.

She found the girl in the kitchen, with Chloe packing a sippy cup and a few snacks in a Frozen lunch bag (Aubrey was getting good at differentiating cartoon characters). She was feeling particularly cheerful because it was Friday night and thought about making a comment about that, but Chloe's expression said it all: she was not on her usual bubbly mood.

Emma's father was in the city. He came for business, but he prolonged his staying for a couple of days, so he could have Emma for the weekend. He was going to take her to his parents' house, that lived in a little city nearby, so they could all spend some time together.

Emma, of course, was thrilled; sleepovers, dad and grandma's house together sounded like a dream. So was Aubrey; Emma spending sometime with the other side of her family was important for the little girl and, also, she loved Emma dearly, but yes, it would be nice to have some alone time with her girlfriend. The only person who did not sound amused at all with the situation was Chloe. And, miraculously, she was not talking about it.

(Chloe was very open about her feelings, differently from Aubrey, who would prefer to lock it all up and pretend she does not care at all until she really did not care at all. Or, she would puke.)

The doorbell rang and Chloe sighed without stopping her work or looking up. Aubrey gave her a concerned look before checking herself up – still in her working clothes - and followed Emma who had ran to the door, knowing very well who was there.

"Daddy!" Emma squealed, being carried by the man at the door.

Todd was a massive guy. His muscular body could be noticed even underneath his shirt and jacket. He had a light brown short hair and green eyes he shared with Emma. His face was long, and he wore an almost charming beard. She could totally see what Chloe had seen on him, not that she would ever say it out loud. And yes, Emma was right, he was taller than Aubrey.

"Hey, monkey." He ruffled Emma's hair while asked her how she was and if she was ready for their weekend. Of course, her answers were positive, she was so ready for this, she did not stop talking about it for weeks.

"Hi, Todd." Chloe said in a forced cheered up tone, coming to them. Aubrey could tell the difference: the original one would light up her entire face, the fake one would never reach her eyes, always making them give away a little bit of sadness, if you looked really close. "How was the trip?"

"Oh, it was fine, thanks for asking." Todd answered. "How are you?"

"I'm great, thank you." Chloe answered. "Oh, Aubrey, this is Todd. Todd, this is Aubrey." She introduced them.

"It's so nice to meet you, Aubrey." He said, shaking her hand. "Heard a lot about you from these two." She motioned to Emma and Chloe.

Chloe kept in touch with Todd (for God sakes, they had a daughter, there was no way they wouldn't keep in touch). So yes, Chloe was very open about dating Aubrey because this is also about who his daughter is being around with. He had heard before about their relationship in college, and said he was glad to hear that they figured out things and found each other after all the years.

It was kind of a routine: he facetimed Emma once or twice a week, always checking also with Chloe about the girl. They would talk about each other too, in amicably tones: Chloe would share shallow things about her life, ask him about his parents, his job, his plans to come see Emma. He would answer and ask about how was Emma's health, school and habits. In general, they talked about Emma and everything in each other's life that could affect the little girl. And Chloe seeing someone and letting them into her house, affected Emma. Especially if the little girl adored them and their pancakes.

Aubrey smiled politely to Todd and watched as Chloe began with the recommendations for him for the couple following days with Emma. Todd listened with adamant attention and assured Chloe everything would be fine. (He didn't seem the irresponsible kind of guy, so Chloe's bad mood towards that visit became even more unclear to Aubrey.)

"So, I'm bringing her back by Sunday morning, before I fly back home. Is that okay for you?" He asked Chloe.

"Yes, that sounds great."

Chloe kissed her daughter goodbye, holding her for a little long, promising to call her to say good night. Emma was leaving when she turned on her heels and hugged Aubrey, as she had forgotten to do so, before running out of the door again with her father. And like that, the house felt silent.

That house was never silent. Sometimes when Aubrey would get there after work, the TV would be on in some cartoon channel and Chloe would be in the kitchen, making noise preparing dinner and trying to listen to Emma's preschool stories. Or, Chloe and Emma would be in the couch together, singing Disney songs out loud, waiting for Aubrey so they could decide together from where they would order food. Other times, when Aubrey would wake up in Sundays – the only day she would let herself sleep in – Emma and Chloe would already be up, curled up in bed beside her, enrolled in some conversation that Aubrey never knew what was about. She would just lay there, waking up from her slumber, watching Chloe and Emma interact in their own little world. The way Chloe's eyes never leaving her little girl's face, the way Emma's hands played, unconsciously, with the ends of Chloe's hair, seeming so comfortable in the place she has been since the very beginning of her life: in her mother's arms.

(In moments like those, Aubrey's heart was entirely filled with a warmness she didn't knew she could feel. The world would stop and somehow everything she knew would be crashed down to ashes, and she would feel like she was just discovering the concept of love all over again, feeling it burn brighter than the sunshine that was rising outside that bedroom. Aubrey felt new.)

"So, do you mind if I ask why do you have your 'I'm upset' face on?" Aubrey asked her girlfriend, approaching from behind and resting her hands on Chloe's hips as the redhead didn't move from her spot in front of the front door since Todd and Emma left, five minutes ago.

Chloe shrugged and rested her body against Aubrey's, letting the blonde hold her for a while. She looked disperse, her baby blue eyes vague and Aubrey observed cautiously that rare mood, willing to give Chloe the time she needed to open up.

"I'll make dinner." Chloe said, heading for the kitchen. "And since it's Friday, will you open a bottle of wine?"

* * *

Two glasses of red wine. That's what it took to Chloe finally start talking.

"We ended things up in a nice way. It wasn't awful, we just didn't want to be together anymore." She said, sipping her wine while Aubrey took over the work of making dinner. "I think he was very scared about Emma. She wasn't planned at all, and it kind of happened in a moment of our relationship where we both already knew there was not a long future for us together."

If a pregnancy had happened at any moment of Aubrey's marriage, it would have had been that way, the blonde thought.

"So, we split up, he found a job in Seattle, I stayed with Emma and we have been arranging things since then. We're doing good, I guess. We try to not think too much ahead of the time." She looked a little bummed saying this, sitting on the counter.

"What is worrying you, love?" Aubrey asked.

"It's just…it's nothing, don't worry, okay?" Chloe said unconvincingly and kissed her cheek.

Aubrey looked at her concerned, but decided to keep on talking normally.

"You should let me watch Emma's baby videos someday."

"Oh, Bree, they're the cutest! She was soooo tiny. I mean, she still is very tiny, but she was the tiniest. I look at her sometimes I can't believe I really pushed her out of my vagina."

"Nice way to say it."

"And you?"

"Me?"

"Never wanted to push a baby out of your vagina?"

Aubrey hesitated. This is the kind of conversation she is not really into, but Chloe seemed finally distracted.

"Not really." She answered. "Peter and I never really talked about it. I think he knew I wasn't ready."

"Wasn't? Are you now?" Chloe asked with a soft expression.

Aubrey shrugged.

"I don't rule it out." She said, chopping sausage, delicately.

"We could, you know." Chloe said. "Make some more Beales."

Aubrey laughed. Yeah, they could. Someday, who knows, right? With Chloe, she always felt like she could do nearly anything.

"You're drunk. Wait, is Emma a Beale?" Aubrey asked.

"Of course, she has my name. I mean, I'm the one raising her, right?" Chloe explains. "I said since the beginning that I wanted her to have my last name. We didn't like the idea of a hyphenated surname and it ended up a really long name. Poor baby, I hope she has a tiny calligraphy."

"And don't give me that look, Bree, it was not out of pettiness. Not only, at least. I have other reasons." Chloe said, numbering them on her fingers. "One, I'm a feminist. Two, I only have sisters, so I feel like someone should carry on with the Beale legacy. So yes, it's Emma Marie Edwards Beale. And being the last one, Beale ends up being more used. I'm not even sorry."

"Marie?" Aubrey asked with an amused expression. "That's my middle name."

"I know, silly. I told you a thousand times when we met that I loved that name, but I thought it was too fancy and sophisticated – and you already know Emma enough to know that none of those are her forte. So, it ended up in the middle." Chloe said. "And being your name too was just a bonus for me liking it even more." She leaned down from her place sitting on the counter and pecked Aubrey's lips.

Aubrey gave her a little smile, blushing a little. Chloe was a kissy drunk.

"I guess this whole surname thing made her very much more mine than his, in his mind, at least." Chloe said, thoughtful.

She stopped, seeming a little bit shaken.

"It must be so easy, you know." Chloe said in a trembling voice. "To come twice in the year, have her for a couple of days and still be the parent of that sweet little thing. To not have to deal with the sick days, the schedule, or with her resistance to not go to bed." She paused, whipping her tears before they fell. "I'm not complaining. Emma is my world and she makes worth all the difficulties of doing this on my own. It just…sometimes it's not fair that he has all the same rights over her that I do."

Aubrey walked back to where Chloe was sitting and embraces the redhead, her torso between her legs, and freckled arms tightly wrapped around her neck. She hold her like she would break, feeling her sobs shake both of their bodies. That's how Aubrey felt about their relationship: if it was hurting Chloe, she would feel it too, like it was her own pain.

"What if he wants to take her someday? To take her away from me? He could." She said between the sobs she emitted against Aubrey's shoulder. "What would I be able to do?"

"Chlo', look at me, love." Aubrey said, pulling back just enough to hold Chloe's face in her hands. "If he ever dares, I will stand by your side in that court room and we will face that together, like everything else. I'm here for you. And have I ever told you how invincible on court I am?" Chloe managed to chuckle between her sobs with the last sentence. "Okay?"

"Okay." Chloe said, putting her hands on Aubrey's that were still holding her face.

"Emma has a home, Chloe. He knows that. He doesn't look like the kind of guy who takes an action against his ex-wife because he is bored or something. He knows Emma is in the best care possible. Please, don't worry that pretty little mind of yours, I hate seeing you cry."

Aubrey's pale green eyes were so honest, so open, Chloe knew she had no idea about it. When she looked into those eyes, she saw all of it. All the love, all the devotion, all of her Aubrey.

"Have I ever told you how much in love I am with you?" Chloe blurted out.

Aubrey stood in silence for few seconds before pushing her lips against Chloe's.

Words are Aubrey's thing. She builds castles and forts out of them when she's creating a defense in court. She writes papers convincing people of things, making them agree with those words and signing up to them. She explains a complicated case to her colleagues in a matter of minutes. She makes out princess stories out of nothing when Emma is specially bored. She keeps an extend inventory of fancy and lovestruck words saved for Chloe only, even if she never really voices them out.

But the thing is: there's no words for Chloe. There's no poetry, there's no Disney duet, there's no love letter, there's no Taylor Swift annoyingly lovesick song that makes justice to how she feels Chloe. With Chloe, she whishes she could create a new word. One that would be a crime if someone decided to ever use to someone else.

She thinks, this ecstasy, this rapture, it may would scare her if it was about anyone else. But it is Chloe. She's did not fell in love. She willingly jumped into that sea of red hair, freckles, blue eyes, agitated sleep, smell of kid's shampoo and homecooked meals. She hates to sound like a cliché, but Chloe is worth every single one of them.

"That's lucky." She said, pulling back when air was an issue and holding the redhead by the waist in her arm length. "Because I am madly in love with you, Chloe Beale."

* * *

Sunday morning came and so did Emma, shortly telling them about her amazing weekend at her grandparent's house but soon retiring herself on the couch, with an arm looped around her safety blanket.

"She's a little down." Aubrey pointed out, watching Emma watching cartoons on the couch, from the kitchen arc. "She's not even trying to make me impersonate Princess Sofia's mother."

"That's why I am not okay with those visits." Chloe murmured, marking a paper by the kitchen island.

After that drunk Friday night, Chloe woke up Saturday morning with a terrible hangover. They didn't resume their conversation, spending the day on bed - not Aubrey's thing, but she was never good saying no to Chloe. (Lazy Chloe was a harsh memory from their college days, when life ran easier and there was really nowhere to be, and their dorm room became a glimpse of what a future together could be. Their actual future was different from those days, but the essence from it was there: the lingering touches, the pillow talks, the shared dreams, the invisible link between their personalities, how they complemented each other, forgiving mistakes and getting lost on the feeling of having each other. Aubrey, a person with a special care for details, this time, couldn't care less. She wouldn't change their actual little paradise for the world.)

Aubrey made her way to sit beside her girlfriend, like a silent permission for her to talk. It was Aubrey's way of saying "I am here, all ears, for you". Oh, so finally there would be a complete explanation.

"She always gets like that after. She doesn't know when she will see him again, she still doesn't really understand why he has to go, then she sleeps badly for a while, eats little and grows quiet. It goes away after a few days but, Bree, it's so hard to see her like that."

The blonde could see it. If she could be honest, Emma's mopey behavior was breaking her heart too. Yes, the stone heart everyone always said she had but little they knew that it was by now made of something like cotton candy.

"I know that not having a father around is difficult to her, all her friends have one. I constantly try to explain those things to her but I can't control how she feels. She has the right, you know. I just try to be the best for her. In the end of the day, I'm like, everything she has."

Aubrey hold Chloe's free hand. She leaned down and kissed her knuckles. She always did that, it was a little habit. It was almost submissive.

"Now she has me. I'm here." Aubrey said.

Chloe smiled to her girlfriend and kissed her softly.

"Yes, I know. You are a blessing." She kissed her again, in a strong and yet so delicate way. "So, get your ass in that living room and cheer my baby up with your stupid princess voice."

* * *

"That's not, like, comfortable, Chloe." Aubrey said, waking up from her slumber as she felt a strong pressure against her stomach that night.

She looked down expecting to find one of Chloe members poking at her, as she moved in her sleep, only to find bright green eyes staring back at her in the low light. Emma was carefully easing her knee out of Aubrey's belly while climbing into the bed, looking almost guilty.

"Emma, what happened?" Aubrey asked, in a hushed tone, trying to no wake Chloe up.

"There's a monster under my bed." The little girl answered, like she was telling a secret.

Aubrey almost rolled her eyes, but then remembered she was dealing with a four-year-old. She sat up pulling the little girl closer to her and sitting her on her lap. After turning on her nightlight, hushing recomforting words, she wiped Emma's chubby cheeks lightly, realizing the tears stains marking the soft flushed skin. Her little body was shaking from her quiet sobs. (Emma was not a crier. Aubrey saw the little girl crying twice: when she hit her head in the monkey bars one day at the park, and other when Bambi's mother died.) Her heart dropped at the sight.

"Shhh, you are okay now, they can't get you here." Aubrey said holding the girl against her chest, ignoring the feeling of her top getting soaked with tears.

Aubrey's first reaction would be waking up Chloe, of course, but as a thoughtful, rational and caring girlfriend, she didn't. 1) Because Chloe deserved that full night of sleep after the couple days she spent worrying about the Emma and Todd situation, 2) because if she was already up, was stupid to make both of them to lose sleep, 3) because it was Emma and by now, ten months after she met the little girl, she could handle Emma very well.

The blonde looked at her sleeping girlfriend one last time, deciding to let her sleep in. She wondered how Chloe raised a baby if she can sleep through a cyclone without being disturbed.

"Let's get some water, shall we?" Aubrey suggested, carrying Emma with her as she got up.

"No! They'll get me, Aubrey!" Emma hissed wrapping the blonde's neck tighter.

"Honey, they won't. I'll protect you, I swear. But we can't stay here now, or we will wake mommy up." Aubrey said, rubbing the Emma's back. "You know how mommy is tired."

"You swear?" Emma asked, pouting.

"I do, Emma." Aubrey said.

"Okay."

"Okay." Aubrey said, turning off the nightlight and turning on her phone's flashlight so Emma wouldn't be terrified all the way to the kitchen.

Emma shivered a little as they passed the door to her bedroom, and hided her face on the crook of the woman's neck. Poor baby, Aubrey thought, trying to remember if, as a child, she ever ran to her parents after a nightmare.

She sat Emma on the counter and got her some water on her Winnie The Pooh sippy cup. The redhead had one hand at the task and the other holding one of Aubrey's, as if preventing her from going too far. (1:42 AM, Aubrey checked on her phone with a sigh.)

"Feeling better?" Aubrey asked Emma, moving a strand of wild red hair from her face with her free hand.

The kid nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it? I'm a good listener." The blonde tried.

"What if they listen and come for me?" Emma asked shushing, with a frightened expression.

"Then I'll have to kick their bums." Aubrey smiled fondly. Only Emma could make her say such a phrase.

The little girl hinted a smile, but soon tensed out, looking around, checking if they were really alone.

"They were under my bed, Aubrey. I heard them. They were ugly and green and ugly. And they were trying to catch me, so I ran to mommy's bed because there no one can catch me."

"That makes sense." Aubrey reasoned, raising her eyebrows.

"And I'm not going back to my room until you send the monster to jail."

Aubrey chuckled.

"Jail?"

"Yes, mommy says you send bad guys to jail."

Chloe was for sure trying to make a simple explanation of an lawyer's work for Emma, now putting Aubrey in the position of sending the figure of a little kid's nightmare to jail.

"What about you and I go to mommy's bed now, and by the morning I'll put the bad guy in jail?"

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise."

Back into Chloe's room, Aubrey tucked Emma in between them and got into bed, ready to finally have some rest.

"Aubrey?" Emma called, in a hushed tone.

"Yes, Emma?" Aubrey answered, in the same tone.

"You are better than dad at scaring monsters who live under beds."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And making pancakes too."

"That's two things, thank you."

"And with princesses stories."

"I am flattered, Emma."

"So, you can prove to me that you are really really good with princess stories telling me one now." Emma said making Aubrey turn to her side to face the little girl. Emma had an expectant look on her face and Aubrey gave her a lopsided grin.

Aubrey loved winning, she always did. As a kid in chess competitions, as a teenager running tracks on high school, with the Bellas at college, as a lawyer in her legal cases. So yes, that night, she did not waste a chance to prove that she was indeed the best at telling princesses stories.

"There was once this beautiful singing princess…"

 **heeeyyyy, this was kind of a long chapter!**

 **I want to thank all of you for reading and also for the reviews, they help my motivation!**

 **Fruit feedbacked me about how they would like to read some conflict in the story, and I tried my best. I would love to hear you guys about this chapter, and maybe also hear what you guys would like to read?**


	6. Birthday girl

**heeyyyy, thank you guys so much for the reviews! they mean a lot to me!**

 **(i was binge watching 30 rock last weekend and wow, jane krakowski could very well be a ms. posen)**

 **enjoy it!**

Aubrey did not hate her birthday. She just liked the other days better.

Growing up as the third child and only daughter of Anthony and Grace Posen, her birthdays were more an event for her father's social circle than celebrating her new age. Everything, from the decoration to the food, was not her choice or any kid's choice at all. Fancy invitations in elaborated golden calligraphies, proper expensive food and table settings that Chloe would never thought about using on Emma's birthday, that they celebrated a few months ago, in Chloe's backyard. (Twenty-four kids, the Bellas, a Saturday and Aubrey helping serving corndogs.) Aubrey's birthday was never _really_ about her.

"It will be on Saturday night. Can you make it?" Aubrey asked holding her phone between her shoulder and her ear, while she flipped through a few avulse pages on her desk.

"Your birthday is Sunday." Chloe answered.

"Yes, but my parents are the ones throwing the party, you know they don't really care about it." The blonde said.

"I'll call Gisele to babysit Emma." Chloe said. "What should I wear?"

"Something fancy. Cocktail-ish." Aubrey said, leaving her study and walking down to the kitchen. It was late night, she noticed the clock. "Something sexy, maybe." She joked.

"That's easy for me." The redhead said, and Aubrey could practically hear her smirking. "And since you're spending the night here after the party, you could wear something easy to take off."

"That's an interesting order."

"Yes, so when we finally celebrate your birthday properly, I won't have much trouble. You know, I intend to-"

"Oh, we are not doing this now, Chloe." Aubrey laughed. "We are not the phone sex kind of people."

"You are no fun. But I gotta go anyway, I have to tuck Emma in." Chloe said. "Do not skip dinner, and go to bed, I'm sure you don't need to revise any work, it's already perfect, you were the one who made it."

"You take so good care of me." Aubrey smiled fondly, even though couldn't see.

"I have the perfect girlfriend and I intend to keep her alive."

"Love you." Aubrey said softly, not knowing what else to say to try to put out all the crazy soft feelings she has for the redhead. "Say goodnight to Emma for me."

"Love you too. Goodnight, see you tomorrow." Chloe said before hanging up.

Oh boy, there would be no birthday gift to outdo having Chloe in her life.

* * *

"How many people are we expecting?" Aubrey asked her mother, as she navigated with her between the staff hired to her birthday.

The neatly dressed servants were setting their large living room to accommodate the cocktail party. Her mother, giving them some orientation about how she wanted things, moved in her always too elegant posture, inside a beige fancy party dress.

Grace was as pretty as she always had been. Aubrey can't remember a time when she didn't look up to her mother as the image of the perfect woman. As a little girl, she was thankful that she shared her blonde hair and green eyes, because her father's brown hair and too dark golden eyes weren't as charming. She was told she was a mini-Grace Posen and she would smile as sweetly as she could, mentally knowing it was not just a compliment, but a _great_ compliment.

Grace Posen exhaled perfection, that was possibly why her father married her. Aubrey wanted so bad to reach it, to be _that_ perfect, to be someone her parents could be proud. She grew up following her high-heeled steps, while still walking on the line of her father's expectations. It sounds hard but if asked, today, Aubrey would say that it shaped her into the woman she grew up to be. The woman Chloe said she loved every single day. If she was enough for Chloe, somehow, she was learning to be enough for herself. She didn't really need to be anyone else but herself.

(But still, her mother was pretty and Aubrey could only hope that the years would be as gentle to her as they were being to Ms. Posen.)

"Thirty. Maybe forty." Grace said, fixing an already perfect flower vase.

"How many of those do I actually know?" Aubrey asked with an amused smile.

"Where is Chloe?" The older blonde asked, ignoring her daughter's question.

"She'll be here any minute."

"Good." She said, turning to Aubrey and fixing unnecessarily with the golden collar around the taller blonde's neck. "Sweet lady she is, Aubrey."

Aubrey smiled fondly at her mother's words. Did she know how much it meant to her that they accepted her relationship with Chloe? How many nights she spent awake thinking about losing them if she ever got to be with Chloe? And how happy and fulfilled they made her feel every time they had Chloe and Emma for dinner, or asked about their well-being, or when her father, last week, mentioned that Kevin, one of her co-workers, showed interest in asking her out, but that he dismissed him by saying Aubrey was already on a serious relationship. (After that, he spent ten minutes going on about how Kevin was sloppy and often irresponsible, and Aubrey couldn't stop smiling about how her father legitimately respected her relationship with the woman she loved. He was right. About both, Kevin and her relationship.)

As her mother mumbled something about going to find her father and got up the stairs, Aubrey ran to the door following the doorbell.

"Oh my God, you look gorgeous." Aubrey greeted Chloe kissing her cheek, by the door. "I can't wait to show you off."

Chloe got there earlier than the other guests. In a long-sleeved black cocktail dress that embraced the body Aubrey adored, perfectly applied make up and her red hair up in a fancy bun, with a few strands falling on the side of her face. Aubrey just wanted to take her hand and run away with her, steal her for the night or something equally crazy and romantic. (That Chloe for sure would love.)

"Oh, don't worry. I will excel at my trophy wife role." Chloe smirked, passing Aubrey only to be pulled back by the wrist.

Aubrey guided both of them into the closet with the coats and kissed her full on the lips, pressing her against the wall, with one hand on the curve of her hip and other slipping though her neck, being careful to not mess any of their make-ups.

"Slow down, tiger." Chloe laughed, and Aubrey can't really think about a better sound. "Let's keep this for the after party." She winked before dragging her girlfriend out of the closet.

Aubrey noticed the irony of the action. And yes, of course Chloe remarked it with a joke to her ear that made her roll her eyes. Maybe this year her birthday party wouldn't be entirely insufferable. Chloe was there, after all.

* * *

Soon, the Posen household was filled with serious looking men and pretty and polite women. Some soft instrumental music was playing as a background noise to the conversations taking place in those large rooms.

Chloe couldn't take her eyes out of Aubrey. Something about the way she moved with those people was new and captivating to her - she was slightly more formal, if possible. Or maybe, Chloe was just too used to _her_ Aubrey, the one only she knew. (The Aubrey who was always at her house wearing sweatpants with old and cozy sweaters, who would kiss her goodnight at her doorsteps when she would sleep in her place, who would take her on dates and smile the entire time, who would run around the house with Emma when she thought Chloe was too busy to realize she was playing like a little kid, who sometimes would be so delicate as she touched her body in the middle of the night that left the doubt if it was real or just a dream, whose laugh was so easy and carefree that made Chloe feel like listening to her favorite song. The Aubrey with whom she was learning to share a life.) So yes, Aubrey in a cranberry cocktail dress, drinking out of fancy glasses and having legal conversation with those strangers was, in a lack of a better word, hot.

And there was something about the way Aubrey introduced her to the guests.

"That's my girlfriend, Chloe." She would say, bearing a smile and putting a hand on the small of Chloe's back.

People would look surprised, of course, but no one acted rudely. And Chloe had a feeling that Aubrey was confident enough about the whole situation to just not care if any of them did. It was so new for both of them, Chloe just wanted to drag Aubrey back to that closet (just literally) and kiss her senselessly for how proud she was of her girlfriend, of them.

At some point, Aubrey watched from across the room as Chloe made her older brother, William, crack up a laugh as she made conversation with him and his wife, Nicole, who was five months pregnant. By the way Chloe was motioning to her belly, she was probably sharing some motherhood advice. The scene made her heart warm, maybe the birthday party idea wasn't entirely bad. She caught her father looking at the group and she realized she was not the only one with her eyes on that little moment. There was something almost tender on his look.

The evening ran fast and not as dreadful as she remembered those birthday parties to be. There as a brief toast to her, made by James, her other brother - also known as the most sociable Posen sibling - that made her cheeks blush and her free arm to tighten the grip around Chloe's waist. There was a lot of goodbyes and by the end of the evening, only the Posens and Chloe were in the house, aside from the staff working on cleaning up the place. Aubrey left the kitchen where her mother was showing her some new silverware and saw Chloe in the living room, sitting beside William and Nicole by the couch, listening to some story James was practically enacting, standing in the middle of the room with one foot on the coffee table. Aubrey almost ran to him and scolded him of it but all of them laughing. She once thought that coming out would make her grow apart from her family, but the exactly oppose was happening.

"Aubrey, follow me." Mr. Posen said, touching her daughter's arm as he passed through her and got up the stairs.

Aubrey gave a last glance to the living room and followed her father to his study, closing the door behind her.

Anthony Posen's study was as neat as Aubrey remembered. She wasn't really allowed to be there as a child, but sometimes, when he was out, she would sneak in there, sit in his leather chair and pretend she was as powerful as he was and then sneak out before her mother started looking for her. It was in moments like those that she just knew she wanted to follow his steps.

"Did you enjoy the party?" He asked, sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

She sat on the other chair, beside him, but turning it so they were face to face. "Yes, father." Aubrey answered, sincerely. "It was a very pleasant evening."

He nodded, almost, almost, grinning.

"Aubrey, I have to be honest with you. I did not see Chloe coming." He said.

It was the first time that he addressed their relationship like that. Like something he was willing to giving his opinion on, like one of his business. And to Aubrey, it did not mean bad news. Not exactly. It meant that it deserved a place in his mind, a good thing. Anthony Posen's mind was a busy place where only things that really mattered would be in. There was no space for nonsense, gossip, pipe dreams or drama. If he was willing to address the changes that happened in Aubrey's life the past year, it was not to give his late disapproval about it. Honestly, if there was a disapproval, he would had given it the second she opened her mouth in that Friday night during their dinner together, several months ago, and said she was dating Chloe. Like that, this issue would be forever ruled out of his mind. Understanding how her father's mind worked was necessary to Aubrey to keep her nerves down, she just wished she had learned that before all the disastrous choices she made seeking his approval.

"You were married to a nice guy, had a stable life and we thought everything was settled." He continued, shrugging. "You didn't seem in love, but I brushed it aside and I assumed it was just how you were, you were never the best at demonstrating feelings, anyway." He ran his hand against the lapel of his suit. "But you are not like that. Not with Chloe, at least."

Aubrey's attention was entirely towards him. She didn't grasp why he choose that night to have that conversation or why he decided to have that conversation at all. She had to bite her tongue to not say that she was not the only one in that room who wasn't good at demonstrating feelings. But she kept herself quietly listening to him, allowing a weak grin to escape from her lips at his last sentence.

"You were brave, Aubrey. You chased after what you wanted." Mr. Posen said, leaning in closer to his daughter. "At first, I didn't really understand your reasons, but now I see that you are happy. You are happy with Chloe in the way I thought you couldn't be because it wasn't how you were. I was so wrong. You should see your face when she is around."

He laughed briefly, shaking his head. Aubrey was surprised but tried to not show. She smiled and hoped he couldn't see the blush on her cheek.

"This whole, gay thing - I guess that's how I can call - it's new for me, you have to understand. I wasn't happy about it, but you are happy with Chloe and well, that's it." He said, his elbows against his knees. "You are my daughter."

Aubrey leans in too and takes one of his hand in hers. She knows that on the tip of his tongue there's an "I love you" that he doesn't knows how to say. She squeezes his hand twice and he squeezes back once. It's enough.

"I didn't call you here just to spill my opinions about your life choices, of course." He gets up and walks to his desk.

Aubrey raised her eyebrows, following him with her green eyes.

"You know what, your grandma would love Chloe." He said, opening a drawer. "They would never shut up, and she would spoil Emma so much."

Aubrey laughed weakly. Grandma Posen was indeed a spirited woman. She taught Aubrey to bake and to speak French (as a young woman she had lived in France and spoke the language like a native). Aubrey carried the lightness of those moments with her until these days. She died during Aubrey's junior high year, and the young blonde felt like she had lost that safe, carefree place that was her grandmother's company.

There was something about the memories she kept about her grandmother that said to her that yes, Grandma Posen and Chloe matched somehow. It was like if they bleed the same light.

Mr. Posen approached Aubrey again, holding something small in his hands.

"Happy birthday, Aubrey." He said giving Aubrey the little velvet box.

Aubrey took the little thing and opened it instantly, not containing her curiosity. The ring sitting inside of it was familiar, she remembered it for its simplicity and beauty. The golden ring had a diamond of considerable size on the top, with ornamented details of gold around it. It was Grandma's Posen engagement ring. Aubrey kept staring speechless at it.

"I don't know if you are already thinking of it, but, if you are," He hesitated. Anthony Posen never hesitates. "If someday this ring is going to someone else's hand, I'd like to think my mom would approve very much if it this someone is someone like Chloe."

Inside, she was crying. Crying and screaming, yes, yes, yes. She could see it on Chloe's delicate finger. Outside, she was staring at the jewel with an open mouth.

Yes, she had already thought about it. She was a thinker, she was a planer, she was a Posen, after all. But only vaguely. She is sure that if they were still together after college, it wouldn't take her a lot of time to fall on one knee in front of that gorgeous woman. But things were so different now. They both had been married, they weren't so young anymore (she was hours away of turning thirty-one), and Emma was on the equation now. There was a still a lot to elaborate, but Aubrey was sure she was going to do it. She just needed the time.

Impulsively, she got up and hugged her father. "Thank you."

She was surprised when his arms embraced her back. She couldn't really remember the last time they had hugged. It didn't take long for him to step back and look a little out of his element.

"Take your time." He pointed to the velvet box. "I mean, don't take long, Aubrey. Don't give her time to get bored and run from you."

Aubrey nodded, grimacing. Just when she thought he was getting _too_ soft.

* * *

Next morning, she woke up with noise. She rubbed the sleep off her eyes and slowly opened them before sitting up, only to have Chloe and Emma yelling "happy birthday" at her.

Chloe was holding a tray with a small cake, French toast, waffles, orange juice and a plate of fresh fruits while Emma was holding a few balloons and a box. (She was thankful she had put her pajamas on after the activities she had had last night with Chloe.)

They started to sing Happy Birthday To You as they joined her on bed, Chloe climbing through her side and putting the tray in front of them, while Emma unceremoniously accepted Aubrey's help to climb the bed easier, and sat herself on the blonde woman's lap.

Aubrey kept an amused face because that was just too adorable and pretended her mind wasn't going back to the little velvet box hidden in her purse that was resting just a few feet away. The thought that the ring inside it could make _this_ permanent made her heart skip a beat.

"Happy birthday, Aubrey!" Emma squealed as they finished singing, throwing her arms around Aubrey's neck. The blonde woman hugged the jumpy little girl back, not really being able to stop smiling even if she wanted to.

"Happy birthday, Bree!" Chloe squealed, as her daughter dropped her arms from Aubrey's neck, and leaned in to peck her lips. "We bought you a cake! You didn't have a cake yesterday."

"We had Bollinger." Aubrey said, rearranging comfortably the little girl on her lap.

"Fancy champagne doesn't have candles." Chloe said sticking her tongue out. "Make a wish."

Her mind got back to the little velvet box as she closed her eyes and blew out the little pink candles on the frosty white cake. "Someday, I hope she says yes." She wished silently, only opening her eyes when Emma and Chloe clapped and cheered.

"Here you go!" Chloe said, kissing her cheek ang passing her the box she saw Emma carrying later.

"Chlo', I said I didn't wanted gifts-"

"Bree, just open it!

Aubrey rolled her eyes and opened the box. Inside it was a photography album with a yellow cover with little rainbows all over it. She opened the album and the pictures were very familiar. Some of them were from back in Barden and the others were taken in the past year. All of them captured a moment she remembered dearly: with the Bellas, with Chloe, with Emma. She felt so lucky. By the end of the album there as a colorful avulse page.

"That's mine!" Emma pointed out.

Aubrey took the page in her hands. It was clearly one of Emma's drawing.

"That's mommy!" Emma pointed a poorly drawn redhead. "That's me!" She pointed out another redhead, but this one was smaller. "And that's you!" The little girl pointed out a blonde, in a tone of who say _'duh'_.

It was far from being perfect, but it was so cute Aubrey just kept smiling down at the drawing. The three characters were holding hands - the little one between the two women – and they were all smiling. She grasped the concept, and that's what really mattered. That was how Emma saw it, and she couldn't be more thankful for be so poorly drawn.

"I'm glad we have a very talented artist in the family. Thank you, Emma, that's beautiful." Aubrey said to Emma, who grinned wildly at her, very proudly. "And thank you, too." She said, turning to Chloe, who was watching them adoringly.

Chloe caressed her face and leaned in, their lips meeting in a soft, chaste kiss. There, in the bed, with those two redheads, Aubrey felt home. Something very alike with the feeling she used to feel when Grandma Posen was around telling her stories in French while baking cookies.

"Hey, I'll put this one in my office, what do you think, Emma?" Aubrey asked the little girl, as she examined the drawing one more time.

Aubrey did not hate her birthday. She just knew that it wasn't a big deal when all of your days can be as blessed as that one. She could not wait to hear Chloe saying yes.

 **i'm working on the prompts you guys gave me! keep sending them, they help me a lot.**

 **so, what do you guys thought about this chapter? and what do you guys want to read? let me know!**

 **thanks for reading!**


	7. Some people are worth melting for

**hello!**

 **thank you so much for the feedback, guys!**

 **(hey, I had already watched anna with jane in unbreakable kimmy schimidt and have to agree, hilarious!)**

 **this is, like, the second piece I wrote for this series. I was planning on posting it on Halloween but then I woud have to rush the timeline here _too much_. In case you guys are confused or something, by this chapter, it's been over year since Chloe and Aubrey met again, so everything I posted here happened in the between.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy it!**

* * *

"Okay, rule number one, we can't kiss tonight." Aubrey said finishing her French braid by the bathroom's mirror of Chloe's bedroom.

"Well, I totally understand where you are coming from." Chloe replied, putting her boots sitting on the end of her bed.

Aubrey came from the bathroom, holding out her blue cape's end.

"You look cool." Chloe said, smirking.

"Must I say the same, Miss Twin Braids?" Aubrey retorted.

Emma entered the room with her Olaf costume on, dragging her stuffed Sven. Chloe yelped (and if Aubrey was the kind of person who yelped, she would had done it too) and fussed over her daughter, completing her looks and kissing her cheek and the little girl giggled.

For Halloween, Stacie was throwing a dinner party at her new house she just bought with her fiancée, Alex. All the Bellas who were still living in the city were going to be attending, very much like a family party. (Aubrey had reconnected with them too. She never felt so sorry in her life. Bellas are for life and she was still forgiving herself for abandoning it.) Since they all adored Emma and Gisele was out there doing whatever teenage girls do in Halloween nights, Chloe and Aubrey decided to take Emma with them.

Chloe thought it would be "cute" if they all had matching costumes, and since they are a blonde, a ginger and a very tiny human being, they decided - two votes against one (Aubrey lost) - that they should go as Frozen characters. Emma loved the idea so much, she didn't shut up about it until the day she could finally wear her costume.

So, when Halloween day came, Aubrey left work earlier, picked Emma up at Chloe's parents' house and took her home. She dressed Emma on her costume and took her to some Trick or Treating around the neighborhood still in her work clothes while Chloe didn't get home (Halloween always ended up being a busy day at the school; something about pranks, Chloe told Aubrey). When Emma's plastic pumpkin was full of candy, they went home and Aubrey checked, with a very impatient Emma, what the little girl was able to eat and what she wasn't – everything with peanut went to the bowl with candy Chloe left by the door to give the kids.

Aubrey lowkey liked Halloween, so she didn't even bother pretending she was annoyed by the whole situation.

(She hadn't grown up in the warmest household, but she had nice memories about her holidays. Easter was when she would proudly excel at egg hunting; at Fourth of July her family would stay at a lake house in the country, and she loved to watch the fireworks, sitting by the lake; Thanksgiving was very cozy, spent at Grandma Posen's, and had her favorite food; Christmas meant expensive gifts, snow and being allowed to be between the adults at the traditional Christmas' Eve party her parents thrown every year to their closest peers; Halloween was tagging along with Williams and James during Trick or Treating, and being frightened by the idea of having to trick someone and end up in jail for vandalism.)

When Chloe got home they began putting their costumes on, helping each other with the hair and the make-up, while Emma wandered around them, having the time of her life and desperately looking for the stuffed Sven that Aubrey bought her one day they went to the mall alone. (Chloe knew letting those two going out on their own always ended up like that. Emma would make puppy eyes and Aubrey would just give her things. The blonde couldn't help it, she was a sucker for the little girl's puppy eyes as much as she was for her mother's.)

Properly dressed as Princess Anna, Chloe took several pictures of an Aubrey properly dressed as Queen Elsa with Emma in the Olaf costume and her stuffed Sven, amused with the way they looked together. Then, when Gisele (dressed as Tinker Bell) appeared by the door to bring her mother's pumpkin cupcakes to Chloe, and the ginger asked her to take some pictures of the three of them together - it would look great in her fireplace console with the pictures of baby Emma, she thought.

* * *

They got at Stacie's when everyone was already there. Beca and Jesse, Amy, Lily and Donald, Cynthia Rose and her wife, Jane, Jessica, Ashley and her boyfriend, Sam, were all hanging out in the backyard. Apparently, Chloe's obsession with photos got them a little bit late. Being late was still not Aubrey's favorite thing in the world, but she learned that it's okay to not be on point sometimes. It's just their friends – actually, practically family.

Alex, a handsome tall, dark-skinned guy, welcomed them in wearing a baseball player costume. He gave Emma some candy and complimented her outfit then guided the three to their backyard. It was a large space with cute picket brown fences. They had put a low table in the center of it, with pillows as seats, and Halloween decorations and thematic foods on it. Fairy lights were extended over their heads, making everything so warm and familiar. They greeted their friends – all of them in costume, because Halloween is weirdos' favorite holiday – and sat by the table.

They had a lovely dinner and, being yet the only Bellas' kid, Emma was never so pampered. Aubrey watched with a smirk as Emma kept insisting that Beca did the Cup Song all over again several times. She would go and distract Emma with something else, but she allowed it for the one and only reason that it was Beca Mitchell wrapped around a five-year-old's little finger.

After the meal they all danced and sang together, like old times. Aubrey missed them so much, how stupid she had been for shutting everyone out for years. She pulled Chloe closer and kissed her as a slow song played in the background, swaying slowly through the improvised dance floor, ignoring Amy making some joke about Aubrey being whipped. (Oh God, she was right, Aubrey thought. Aubrey Posen was whipped.)

A moment like that was something she would never let herself do in front of anyone in college, not even if her palms were burning only with the thought of holding Chloe or if the redhead's figure was the only clear thing she could see in the middle of everyone. So, she can't really blame the curious eyes of their friends when she demonstrates affection for her girlfriend publicly.

Maybe she was just thinking of that, getting herself a drink, when Rey from Star Wars approached. Oh, wait, it was just Beca.

"It looks like you made amends with movies." Aubrey commented with a smirk.

"Star Wars was never _that_ bad." Beca replied, rolling her eyes. "And I wasn't the only one making some amends."

Aubrey gave her a guilty look before taking some time to look around.

Jesse had Emma on his shoulders while she attempted to put the basketball in the basket while Alex, Donald and Sam cheered with their beers in hand - seeing the little girl's smile was a privilege Aubrey was happy to have. Ashley and Stacie were laughing hard, leaning on each other, at something Amy said, while Cynthia Rose dared Jessica, Ashley and Lily on a beer pong game. Chloe was chatting with Jane in a corner, with that expression that means that she is enjoying the conversation, fidgeting with one of her braids with one hand and nursing a wine glass in the other one. Okay, looking at Chloe under the fairy lights with that smile made her regret the "no kissing for the night" rule she made.

"I made some stupid choices in the past." Aubrey said, apologetically.

"We all did, Aubrey." Beca said in a comprehensive tone. "You have to stop being so hard on yourself about it, we don't blame you. We are all glad you're back."

They shared a sympathetic smile.

"No one is happier than Chloe, though." Beca added. "I swear to God, Aubrey, if you leave her-"

"You will murder me in my sleep. I know." Aubrey said in a monotone tone. "You tell me this every single time we met. You even text me to say it sometimes."

"Just making sure you are aware."

"I am, Beca. And you have no idea how I appreciate how much you care about her and Emma." Aubrey said, turning to her small friend. "But I am here for the long-term thing. I am not leaving them. As long as she will have me, I will be here."

"Well, then you are never leaving." Beca chuckled.

"That's the plan, Mitchell." Aubrey grinned.

Beca watched Aubrey for one or two seconds. People are crazy, they change so much.

"Uh, hide that cup, Aubrey." Beca said, taking the cup out of Aubrey's hand and throwing it away as she saw Emma wandering in their direction.

The little girl came to steal Aubrey from Beca, so they could find some chocolate without peanut for her to eat. Beca watched as Aubrey picked the kid up and walked to where the candies were. Watching Aubrey sitting by the table with Emma on her lap, brought a little smile to the brunette's face.

The little girl kept eating her chocolate sitting there, while Aubrey had her arms looped around her. They were chatting about something Beca couldn't listen, but just the view entertained her for a while. She watched as Chloe approached them and kissed Aubrey's cheek before sitting by her side with a slice of pumpkin pie. She fed Emma, but the little girl was more interested in the chocolate, then she fed Aubrey and then herself. It looked like some kind of family picture, Beca thought.

"What are you looking at?" Jesse asked, hugging her from behind.

"Just thinking…they are the cutest family ever. We should just give up, we'll never top them. It's so unfair." Beca said with a fake pout. Her face suddenly became serious. "I hope they don't kiss wearing those costumes. It would be super weird."

"You talk like Rey kissing Frodo is normal."

"Shut up, nerd." Beca smirked, turning on her heels to kiss him.

* * *

 **I hope you guys liked it!**

 **I want thank you again about your feedback! they help me to improve the story and my writing skill as well, so if you can, give me thought, I will appreciate it very much!**

 **thanks for reading!**


	8. Holding on to me so tight

**hello! here's some christmas fluff!**

 **I'm home for christmas and got inspired and wrote something very family-ish. I hope this can fullfill the requestes asking for interaction with their families!**

 **hope you enjoy it!**

Aubrey thought holiday season was nothing but something created by big corporations to sell more unnecessary stuff to people. She didn't liked it in the way Chloe did, but she thought it was tolerable. For her, there wasn't some kind of happy mood that took over her when the last months of the year were coming. She couldn't really remember the last time she set up a Christmas tree. As a kid she wasn't _that_ excited about it, since the lack of family traditions in her household didn't allowed her to be. This almost non-existent relation with holiday season was one of the only things in which her ex-husband and her were compatible.

But, of course, if holiday season was important for Chloe, she put her indifference aside.

Since the Posens were going to celebrate Thanksgiving at some friend's place in Boston and the Beales were also leaving the city to celebrate it at some relative's, Aubrey decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner for all the Bellas. They all shared the meal at Chloe's place, involved in a kind of warmness that had nothing to do with the heater.

("Please don't ever leave us again", Amy mumbled, her mouth stuffed with delicious mashed potatoes, ignoring the glare Aubrey gave her.)

It was treated almost like a marathon. Aubrey took the lead, sketching a plan since grocery shopping, sharing the tasks with Chloe and giving Emma a reason to be excited (she was used to know that if Aubrey was planning, something great was going to come in the end). Chloe stuck along, following instructions and trying to keep her away from becoming a dictator.

It was the first holiday season they were going to celebrate together. Although they were already together last year, they spent it apart, with their own families, trying to not rush things and make them too confusing for Emma. Then they shared a quite meal together before Thanksgiving Day, met the day after Christmas for a brunch, in which they shared little gifts, and at New Year's Day, Aubrey was out of the town for some last-minute work trip. But now, since they were in a happy and stable relationship, it only made sense they spent it properly, together.

Aubrey never felt more in family before, as she moved between her Bellas that Thursday, all smiling and joking around, catching up with each other, hugging and kissing. She watched from the arc of the kitchen, Chloe with Emma in her arms, telling Beca something trivial. Yes, she was kind of spending Thanksgiving with her family, Aubrey thought, with a smile before announcing that dinner was ready.

That was the first time the blonde caught a glimpse of what Chloe's excitement about the holiday season was about.

* * *

Christmas was a settled deal. They would attend the annual Posen Christmas' Eve dinner party, spent the morning together and then head to the Beales to have lunch with Chloe's not small family.

She went to Chloe's place one day after work, in the beginning of December, to find both redheads engaged on the task of untangle Christmas light from a box labelled "Christmas".

"We were waiting for you!" Chloe said in an excited tone, and Aubrey suddenly felt something that should be very close to what people called Christmas spirit.

Aubrey attended Emma's preschool Christmas play, holding Chloe's hand while she couldn't take her eyes of the stage. Emma was a candy cane and didn't really had any lines. Aubrey couldn't really tell the relevance of that character to the plot of the story, but she thought no other kid shone just as much as the little redhead. They covered Emma with compliments about her performance and the smile on her face was priceless. They walked to the parking lot holding hands with a candy cane wrapped in an overcoat between them, because Emma refused to change back into her normal clothes.

She also attended the recital from the elementary school where Chloe works as music teacher, this time, with Emma being the one sitting by her side. And honestly, she could only praise the amount of patience her girlfriend must have to deal with all those tone-deaf kids every single day.

That year, as she walked into her 's cocktail party to celebrate the successful year they had as a firm, she had a gorgeous redhead woman by her side, not a distant, slightly too annoyed guy (everyone gets a little annoyed at those parties, after all). As she kissed Chloe, pressing her against her car later that night, with the chilly wind biting their cheeks and warm hands against her neck, she decided that there wasn't any other way she wanted to attend those parties ever again.

When her mom complimented Emma's dress when they arrived there on Christmas Eve night and Emma complimented Mrs. Posen back, she allowed a bubbly giggle to erupt from her lips. The Posens and a few close friends, Chloe and Emma, had dinner formally as always and chatted amicably all the while. James and William and his wife, Nicole, meeting Emma for the first time, allowed themselves to be charmed by the little girl.

"The Posens are secretly big softies." Chloe hushed to Aubrey's ear when they sat by the living room with Emma unwrapping the gift she received from Mrs. Posen, who sat by an armchair also watching the scene with a soft smile on her lips.

"That's-" Aubrey started to disagree but Emma got up and hugged Mrs. Posen as a thank you, making her laugh freely. "Okay, I see your point."

* * *

The Christmas morning brought a nostalgic feeling to Aubrey. She sat on the ground of Chloe's living room, helping Emma unwrap her gifts and watching the way her eyes shone with joy and surprise. Being a child was such a blessing, she wished her childhood years were more like _that_. But in the moment she unwrapped one of Chloe's gifts for herself and found a Christmas sweater that was not _too_ ugly, something changed.

"It's a Beale tradition. We wear them." Chloe explained, and Aubrey noticed her cheeks were pink. "I know that you are very serious about your clothing, so you don't really have to wear it if you don't want to, but I wanted you to know that you are a part of it now."

Aubrey just kissed her cheek. Maybe her childhood wasn't entirely a Christmas paradise, full of love and affection, but she had the prospect of so many years ahead to be just like that with Chloe. Suddenly, she was eager for the new year's holiday season, and the following one's, and all the other ones'. She couldn't even get annoyed at Chloe for having a positivity so infectious.

"I think it will do just fine with those Prada trousers I was planning on wearing today." Aubrey said, before pecking Chloe's lips and going back to open her gifts.

* * *

And the Beales, well, they are the people who raised Chloe. They are loud and overly welcoming. Aubrey had been with them before, twice when she was in college, and uncountable times after Chloe and she got back together – because they were party people, and there was always something to attend related to Chloe's parents or her sisters. For Christmas, they were hosting a get together for the entire Beale clan – that's what Aubrey presumed, since Chloe introduced her to so many aunts, uncles and cousins that there was no chance she could remember all their names (and the fact that at least seventy per cent of them were redheads and that all of them were wearing the same sweater didn't helped at all). There was at least half a dozen of children running around with Emma, and someone had brought a Corgi named Bruce.

("How did they find Bruce such a small matching sweater?" Aubrey asked Chloe, dumfounded.)

The dinner was delicious and wrapped in cheerful conversation. A Christmas playlist was being used as background music and Chloe had a free hand over Aubrey's on top of the table. It was almost like she had been attending those family parties for years. She bites her bottom lip, chiding herself when she allowed the thought that if she had done things right years ago, that was how things would had happened. As if reading Aubrey's mind, Chloe gave her hand a squeeze, and when their eyes met, the smile on the redhead's face was just enough to vanish any anxious thought on her mind. (Chloe's smile is a reminder that everything was okay. She doesn't know how to live without it anymore.)

The Beales sang Christmas carols and danced with each other after dinner. Aubrey thought how amusing would it be to put the Beales and the Posens in the same party and watch the contrast between them. She smirked at the thought, and through the window she realized the snow falling slowly outside. She got up and went to the porch in front of the house, not being able to stop her excitement. Snow was a rare thing there.

As she stepped outside, her body instantly trembled with the cold weather, since she was wearing only the Christmas sweater Chloe gave her that morning. But it was bearable, and she was never too bothered about cold – those skiing lessons as a child had taught her one or two things.

Maybe she was thinking just that when Chloe busted out by the door, looking for her. She gave her girlfriend a soft smile and opened her arms for her, who wasted no time. She wrapped her arms around the woman and allowed her nose no to snuggle the mass of red hair, making proper use of their height difference.

"It's insane." Aubrey said.

"Are you still bugged about Bruce's sweater?" Chloe asked with a giggle.

"Well, I am, actually." The blonde answered. "But I wasn't talking about it."

Chloe pulled out from the embrace but kept her girlfriend at arm's length. "What is it?"

"Have you ever thought if we would be doing this? Me and you? Christmas, family gathering, matching sweaters? Together?" Aubrey asked, with an uncertain tone, maybe not sure if she really wanted to hear the answer.

"I honestly didn't." Chloe said, simply, squeezing Aubrey's elbow. "But, sometimes, I hoped."

Aubrey gave her a puzzled look.

"I hoped that you were happy, safe, loved, even if it didn't mean you and me together." Chloe said in a sad tone. "I hoped that someday I could see you glowing with happiness, even if for one or two minutes, if we casually met out there, and then I would be okay with it, I could let go of you for good. I hoped that I could find the same."

Aubrey caressed the shorter woman's face, brushing a thumb against her soft cold cheek, looking down adoringly at her girl, her heart burning with affection. All those years thinking about each other and not being together, they all sound so wasted now.

"So, no, I didn't really used to think about all of this. Life just gave me so much more than I hoped." The redhead said, holding Aubrey's hand against her cheeks. "Life gave me the chance to be the reason behind the happiness I wished you so much." She smiled. "At least I think you are happy. I mean, I hope you are happy. I know, these Christmas sweater are not really masterpieces but-"

Aubrey just brought their lips together in a fervent kiss, letting her hands slip to Chloe's hair, tangling the locks around her cold fingers as the redhead's own hands found their way around her waist.

Aubrey broke the kiss abruptly. "I've never been happier." She said, her lips ghosting over Chloe's. "Please don't ever think that I'm not happy with you. That would be so, so wrong."

Chloe eyes shone at hearing those words.

"Even wearing these ugly sweaters?" Chloe joked, with a smirk dancing on her lips.

"They're not _that_ ugly. Bruce looks fit on them, and so must I."

Chloe laughed out loud, but the impulse of kissing Aubrey again was stronger, so she just did, letting the laugh die against her girlfriend's lips. The hopes she had in mind? She now hoped for a lifetime of a certain blonde matching expensive pants and shoes with ugly sweaters.

 **thanks for reading! i hope you guys liked it!**

 **keep reviewing and I'll know what guys want to read and what you guys are thinking about the story! I love to hear your opinions and they help me a lot when writing.**

 **happy holidays, everyone!**


	9. Sweet love of mine

**hey guys!**

 **thank you all for the reviews! if this story has a bechloe shipper as a reader maybe I'm doing something nice here!**

 **i hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

"We have a crisis." Chloe said, entering Aubrey's study with her phone in hand. "Emma found her pacifier back."

"Isn't she like, too old for that?" Aubrey asked sitting by her desk, stopping typing something on her laptop.

"She is. Mom still keeps one at her place and she just called and said Emma found it." Chloe sighed, dropping herself at an armchair in front of the desk. "You have no idea how hard it was making her stop using it."

The blonde took time typing two last sentences before getting up and curling herself into her girlfriend's lap. It amazed Chloe seeing Aubrey letting her guard down little by little; initiating intimacy and allowing herself to be taken care of, even in little actions like that. One of the few things about her that annoyed Chloe back in their college days was how stiff and slightly cold Aubrey could be sometimes, but as a grown woman, almost two years in a relationship, the blonde left Chloe with no complaints about this.

"Is it that bad that she is back at it?" Aubrey asked, admitting how clueless she was about kids.

"It's just not good." Chloe said, playing distractedly with the ends of Aubrey's long blond hair. "It can cause dental problems and also interfere on the diction, and well, as sad as it makes me, she is growing up and she is getting too old for a pacifier. She turns six in two months."

Aubrey made a perplex face.

"But she still a baby." The blonde protested. "She is growing up too fast, Chlo'."

Chloe grinned at her. "Look at you, talking like a mom."

The comment apparently took Aubrey by surprise. Chloe felt the body tensing against hers and she had that look of a deer caught in headlights.

Truth be told, Aubrey was a lot better with Emma than Chloe ever thought she would be. She knew it was alright to let Aubrey walk into their lives, it never felt like a risk and, of course, she also knew Aubrey was serious about understanding that dating her meant having Emma in her life too. The thing is, she just didn't expected Aubrey to fully embrace the co-parenting thing so fast. In another words Aubrey filled the second parenting figure in Emma's life with barely any hesitation, and Chloe wasn't even sure if the blonde realized it. Emma, in the other hand, didn't seemed no even slightly taken aback with this change. The little girl adored Aubrey, and in a few occasions, Chloe almost felt jealous of it. It was an adaption for everyone and she soon let go of it, deciding that she could share Emma a little more, it was okay.

"Oh my God, I didn't mean to say it like that." Chloe was fast after her own words. "I mean, it's not like I'm pushing this title on you-"

"It's fine, babe." Aubrey said, softly.

"Really?" Chloe touched the side of Aubrey's face with her free hand.

"Yeah." Aubrey said with a smile.

Chloe caressed her face. "You are amazing with her, she loves you."

"I don't think she will love me very much when she discovers that I'm making you pancakes by the morning and she is not here." Aubrey smirked.

"She is already having a hard time knowing we're at your place without her." Chloe remarked, and decided that since they were alone, there was something she felt like they should talk about. "But hey, there's something I need to talk to you about Emma." She paused and checked if she had Aubrey's full attention. "I wasn't going to really talk to you about it, not now at least, but the issue came up and all."

"You're worrying me." Aubrey said, frowning. "You have your serious face on."

Chloe's serious face was rare. It appeared only if someone was being unnecessarily a jerk, being mean to a kid or an animal, or if she was scolding Emma for something.

"Emma said something a few days ago."

"I swear I only gave her one cookie before dinner. Just one. And because she made the puppy eyes!" The blonde was fast and apologetic.

"Wait, what?" Chloe asked back, confused.

"Oh, it's not that?" Aubrey gave her a guilty look. "Okay, sorry for interrupting, go on, babe."

"We'll talk about that later." Chloe glared at her. "Emma called you "other mommy".

Aubrey's heart dropped. Other mommy? Was she worth this title? There was a huge difference between acting almost like a parent around the little girl and actually being seen as one by her. "Wow." Was all she said while her mind was burning with anxiety.

"She was talking to Maria - you know Maria, her new best friend from school since Erica became best friends with Anna and left her." (Not surprisingly, those were not news for Aubrey, Emma makes sure she is keeping up with all that kindergarten drama.) "So, she was telling Maria about her plans for the future, and she said that maybe she wanted to be a florist or maybe a blonde, like her other mommy."

Aubrey didn't knew if she was more worried about the fact that the little girl thought that being blonde was a substantial plan or with the whole "other mommy" situation. Okay, she was five, she was allowed to think this kind of things.

"That's…" Aubrey started but sighed soon after. "Chloe is that okay?"

"I honestly don't know." Chloe said, rubbing circles with the palm of her hand against Aubrey's jeans, delicately. "I thought that maybe we could figure it out together?"

"Now we do have a crisis, right?" Aubrey laughed nervously. She sighed and said in a very serious tone. "Chloe, I am very serious about you and I being a long-term thing. So, so serious. If you feel comfortable with me co-parenting Emma, I'm doing it. I just have tons of things to learn but I'm willing to. I do love you and I do love your daughter, like she is mine. I want to be here for the long road."

And like that, the weight forming on Chloe's chest since the beginning of their conversation suddenly dissolved into warmness. She kissed Aubrey like it was the first time.

"I've been reading about motherhood, I won't lie to you." Aubrey smirked to her.

"That's so you."

Aubrey laughed shaking her head. "I have to be ready, okay? But I was afraid I was getting ahead of myself. I was afraid we had rushed things and all but when I talk to you I just feel like we are doing the right thing."

"We are good together, aren't we?"

Aubrey smiled fondly at her girlfriend. Good? She was her better version with Chloe. She was always afraid of not being the best; at her work, as a daughter, as a human being. But when she was with Chloe, all her worries faded out into locks of red hair, sweet kisses and a feeling of lightness that were characteristics of being beside Chloe. She never wanted to be anywhere else.

"I have no words for how happy I am about us." The redhead said. "I was never on the same page with anyone I've ever had a relationship with, I always was too much." A glint of sadness passed through her eyes as she said that, and not standing seeing that, Aubrey kissed her chastely, causing her to close her eyes.

"You are not too much. You are enough. You are everything I've ever needed." Aubrey whispered, her mouth few centimeters away from her own lips.

Yeah, Chloe nodded with her eyes half-closed. She felt exactly like that too.

* * *

It took some time to Aubrey adjust with the idea that Emma was calling her for something other than her own name.

A few days after her conversation with Chloe, with the feeling of being so perfectly acquainted with someone still making her mood a little brighter than usual, she dropped by Chloe's place after work. Emma received her with her usual greeting. (Jumping into Aubrey and screaming her name.) They had dinner and when Aubrey was helping Chloe with the dishes, Emma called from the living room.

"Mommy!"

Chloe put her head through the kitchen arc. "Yes, babe?"

"No! Not you, the other one!" Emma said, giving Chloe the _duh_ look. " _Doc McStuffins_ is on and you know she secretly loves it."

Aubrey and Chloe exchanged an amused glance.

"What? Doc McStuffins knows what she is doing!" Aubrey said with and excusing look, leaving the kitchen, trying to hide the smile Chloe just knew was on face.

The following weeks after had several of those moments. Chloe and Aubrey decided to just let her be comfortable using the term, not to push her to talk about it or forcing her into a situation of using it if she didn't feel like. Aubrey felt her heart squeeze in a sweet way everytime the little girl left implied that _she_ was the one about who she was using that term.

They all regularly spent a lot of time together. At those moments, in a picnic at the park, in a dinner at Aubrey's parents, in a gathering together with the Bellas, or just at home, playing some board game or watching a movie, it was so easy to fell like they were already doing this for years and years. Something about time wasn't right when Aubrey was with them, it just passed too fast. In moments like those, Aubrey just wanted to pick up her grandmother's ring and run to Chloe's door and beg her to spend the rest of their lives together, just like that.

There were also other moments; when Chloe was stressed out about work, or when they would fight over something really silly, or when Emma would throw a tantrum, or when someone would look judgmentally at them when they went out together, or when things were just not easy, and the world seemed to work against them. In those moments, Aubrey also thought there was something was not right, because even then, she still wanted to commit herself into that life; she still wanted all of it.

Not every day was perfect, but Aubrey wanted to end every single one of them knowing she would had the other day to try make it better than the one before.

It was in one of the not perfect days when Emma first called her directly by her new title.

She had lost a case that she was sure she could win. She dropped by Chloe's place after work – such a common thing now – and of course Chloe understood her low mood. She understood her silence during dinner, allowing Aubrey's mind to go over about every single thing she could've done differently. After it, she allowed herself to drop by the couch, listening to Chloe finishing drying up the dishes in the kitchen, and mildly paying attention to the cartoon Emma was watching.

"Momma, why are you sad?" Emma asked, climbing into her lap before she noticed.

Aubrey, the queen of court was left speechless by a five-year-old. She hold the little girl with shaken hands and her mouth opened once, then twice, but no sound came out. Oh God, she could not show she was taken aback by that word, she read that on the internet, she should act normally and let the kid take her time on everything. Kids did the things were right for them, on their time. She had to respect it. So yes, she felt like crying out of an emotion she didn't really knew until then, but she had to act normally. For Emma.

"I just had a bad day at work, Emma." The blonde said, moving a strand of red hair behind the little girl's ear.

"When I had a bad day, mommy used to let me have paci. I would let you have it but she hided it." The little girl sighed, and Aubrey chuckled. Emma continued in a hushed tone. "I found one at grandma's house, but mommy can't know about it."

"Well, thank you, honey, that's really kind. I don't think you pacifier would help here."

"Oh." Emma made a sad face. "What can help you?"

Aubrey smiled fondly at Emma. She had not only her mother's red hair and uncountable freckles, she also had her heart in the same place. Somewhere where helping people and being a light in the darkest hours was a priority. Something like pride rose up to Aubrey's chest.

"Maybe you could give me some cuddles?" Aubrey proposed with a fake pout.

"Okay!" Emma cheerfully agreed, curling herself into Aubrey's chest, as they settled on the sofa and watched cartoons.

They didn't even realized Chloe watching the scene from the arc of the kitchen, with tears glistening in her eyes and a heart full of love.

Even in the worst days, there was no other place she would rather be.

* * *

 **I'm desperate for prompts, so drop some ideas if you can and we'll meet halfway!**

 **thanks for reading again and let me know what you guys are thinking about the story!**

 **I hope ya'll have a great beggining of year!**


	10. We're taking over the world together

**Hiya! Thank you so much for the feedback!**

 **This is a long chapter and I'm really proud of it. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

Life was a messed-up thing, Aubrey thought. It's never how you plan and can be frustrating if you are not willing to let it have its way and make some changes. She was never a fan of changes, that's why she was a planner.

If Aubrey had to tell someone the story of how one of the biggest changes of her life began, she would not struggle to point out that afternoon at that cute coffee shop - in which they served Muppet decorated cupcakes for no special reason at all and had beautiful sketches in frames on their walls.

Beca was sitting on a table by the corner when Aubrey walked into the coffee shop. She looked _too_ tiny. She had ordered Aubrey an iced mint tea and one of their cupcakes, - a Miss Piggy one - and seemed pretty amused with herself when the blonde gave her a surprised thank you (not even Aubrey could deny that the cupcakes were delicious). The blonde made small talking, asking her friend about Jesse and other things.

"You didn't invite me here to this. You are not the small talk kind of person." Beca said, biting a butter cookie.

The blonde sighed. She took a little velvet box out of her purse and gave it to the brunette.

"Wow, Aubrey." Beca said and let a whistle pass through her lips, analyzing the object inside. "You are a very nice woman, but I don't think we are there yet."

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "It's for Chloe."

"That makes sense." The brunette smirked and took her time appreciating the solitary ring. "It's very beautiful," She said, touching the diamond. "And looks expensive."

"It was my grandmother's. Do you think Chloe will like it?"

"You could propose to her with a pop ring and she would love it." Beca said like it was obvious, and this made Aubrey feel a little more relaxed.

Beca and Aubrey developed a weird friendship through the years. Soon after Barden, they were friendly towards each other until Aubrey flew away to be a lawyer and cut out all the Bellas, not only Chloe. Beca was pissed, (she was the one witnessing a very heartbroken Chloe, making rushed decisions in order to forget the blonde and the not so secretly fling they had), but she couldn't really hate Aubrey; she saw some of herself in the blonde and hated to admit that she did understand why Aubrey ran away: loving someone gives them the ability to hurt you. Beca didn't hated Aubrey, she just thought she was really dumb; Chloe was the safest person to love in the entire Earth.

"Do you think this is right? Proposing?" The lawyer asked, fidgeting with her hands.

"Too many questions today, Posen, calm down." Beca raised an eyebrow and closed the little box.

"I'm freaking out here, so can you please not be you just for now?"

"Okay, you have five minutes." She agreed, setting the chronometer on her phone and making a show putting it on the table between them. Aubrey just rolled her eyes – she did it _a lot_ when she was with Beca. "Honestly, you guys are practically married." She said, returning to the question.

"Not really. We live in different houses and-"

"And that's it. The rest of the items of the married list you guys already checked. Holidays together? Check. Sharing responsibilities? Check. Always being the first ones to leave the parties? Check. Singing Endless Love on karaoke nights? Check. Being lame? Check."

"In any other circumstance, I'd already had proposed. But things are different. We're older and there's Emma-"

"Emma literally calls you mom." Beca said. "I know, proposing will make everything more serious and real, but don't you feel like that's what you want? Isn't that the future life you see? Aren't you sure of that?"

"Yes." _More than anything._

"Then you are fucking stupid for even doubting doing it."

Aubrey glared at her friend. Why in the hell she kept her around? Why in the hell she was the one to whom Aubrey came to ask advice? Why in the hell her words had to make sense?

"When are you proposing then? Show me your schedule. Please do it soon, Amy got a yacht to Stacey's engagement party, I'm sure she could it again. Just don't ask me how." Beca said with a serious face.

"I'm sorry but it will take some time." Aubrey apologized. "I need to plan."

"If it's taking so long for you to do it, why did you bring me here? I mean, I know these cupcakes are the shit, but I don't think it's just that."

Aubrey blushed a little before answering. "I needed your blessing. You're her best friend. You were here all this time. It just felt like I should ask you-"

"I got it." Beca nodded.

Maybe that was the reason Aubrey and Beca became close friends. Uncountable times Chloe told them they were _so alike_ and that that was the reason of their previous conflicts. So, if Aubrey had so much to thank Beca for looking out for Chloe all those years and for not being a bitch to her when she came back, Beca knew it already and didn't really needed to make Aubrey go through the process of putting it in words. Aubrey gave her a thankful look.

"Oh, and Aubrey, don't even try to make me your maid of honor, I'm already Chloe's." Beca said while chewing a cookie and making Aubrey want to scold her for it.

"With your height, you'll fit better with the flower girls." The blonde rolled her eyes and checked Beca's phone. "The five minutes are already over? I want to ask for more of them. Not that they made a huge difference, you were still being a pain in the ass."

"Aubrey, just say it, you're going to miss me." Beca said, with a dorky grin on her face.

"Absolutely no." Aubrey lied. "I'll be relieved."

A few months ago, Beca flew to LA to a job interview. Her actual job at a local record label was full of self-absorbed jerks who never paid attention to her or her talent, making her incredibly frustrated and stuck as some kind of assistant, since they never acknowledge her effort and never really gave her space to grow professionally. In this job in LA, she would work with the very best, what she has been dreaming for years. Poor girl went there with low expectations, telling everyone it was "just a job interview that would break her cold little heart". (Aubrey disagreed with her and not only because it was her favorite thing to do, but also because 1) Beca's talent was noticeable and she thought her friend really had a chance, and 2) she thought Beca had a warm medium-sized heart.) Last week, Beca had received a call; she had got the job and the Bellas celebrated it with a karaoke night by a bar nearby Aubrey's office that she had no idea that existed.

In Aubrey's opinion, the world would be a better place if more people could listen to Beca's music. Chloe agreed, but it didn't stop her from crying on Aubrey's shoulder because her best friend was moving away.

"We are getting too grown up, that's scary." Beca said with distant look. "I'm moving to LA, you're getting married-"

"Not yet, she still has to say yes-"

"She does not know how to say no to you." She brunette said. "Just like Jesse does not say no to me and now he will follow me to LA. That loser."

Aubrey gave her a lopsided grin. "Love is a weird thing, right?"

Beca returned the same grin. "The weirdest."

* * *

That conversation with Beca lead Aubrey to a state of mind in which she was slowly admitting - to herself only – that she was feeling something like sadness for Beca's departing. Chloe was definitely rubbing off on her, and _actually_ liking Beca was a heavy sign of that.

"You are acting weird." Chloe said, entering the bathroom.

"No, I'm not." Aubrey said, not taking her eyes off from her task. Shampooing Emma's hair was a tricky work, you had to be careful, for a lot of reasons - not making the knots on her hair worse and not letting the foam fall into her eyes were just some of them.

Chloe frowned, leaning on the door frame. "You are humming that sad song from the Wicked finale."

"Am not." The blonde retorted, from her place sitting on a little stool beside the tub.

Chloe almost got distracted with the domesticity of the vision. Aubrey barefoot in a dark blue pencil skirt, that matched her jacket suit that was hanging by one of the kitchen's chair, and white linen shirt with three unbuttoned buttons and pulled sleeves, carefully bathing Emma. She had only done that once, when Chloe got a cold and was too exhausted to give the little girl a bath and Aubrey offered to do it, a little reluctantly. Weeks later, she seemed pretty at ease when Chloe asked her to do it again, while she finished some work. Aubrey was more of a mom than she liked to admit.

"But you are being weird." Emma said, distractingly, playing with a rubber frog.

"Even you?" Aubrey pretended to be hurt, putting a stray rubber toy back in the tub.

Chloe laughed and approached them, sitting by the border of the tub. Aubrey noticed the tired look on her face.

"Are you okay?" She asked the red head, finishing the bath and wrapping Emma in her panda bathrobe.

"Yeah." Chloe said, rubbing her eyes. "Work is just killing me."

"Mommy is dying!" Emma shrieked and ran to hug Chloe.

Chloe laughed, picking her daughter up and making her way to Emma's bedroom to get the girl dressed up in her PJs for the night. Aubrey waited behind, emptying the tub and collecting the rubber toys into the little basket they were kept in.

It was not the first time Chloe seemed less than enthusiastic about her work. Of course, everyone had bad days, even loving being a lawyer, not every day was a picture of the job she dreamed about having for so long. What concerned Aubrey was that Chloe's bad days were so often that she couldn't remember the last time Chloe ranted about her students or some project she was thinking of working with them.

When they lied down that night, Aubrey kindly questioned Chloe again about her bad mood.

"I have a lot of my mind right now." Chloe said, laying on her side, facing Aubrey. One of her hands was under her pillow and the other one was distracting tracing Aubrey's collarbone, peaking out her collar. "Beca is leaving, work is stressful." She sighed. "I mean, I know I work with thirty kids, stress is what I signed up for." She chuckled, humorless. "I just didn't think I would be doing this for that long. It's been eight years."

"That's a lot of noisy kids." Aubrey murmured with a grin.

"You have no idea." Chloe rolled her eyes. "I love my kids but…" She trailed off. "That is so not what I really wanted to do. I don't have a major in performing arts only for this." Her hand curled up against Aubrey's exposed skin and automatically the blonde's hand came up to hold it. "I was planning to get into grad school after college. In somewhere else; maybe California, maybe New York. But life happened, and suddenly I saw myself going into other direction, then I got married and Emma came along and soon I was alone with a baby and there was no space, time or money to those plans." Aubrey squeezed her hand. "I don't wanna sound ungrateful, things worked out well and I'm so lucky that I'm managing having a job, raising Emma and everything."

Aubrey kissed her knuckles so softly that brought Chloe's eyelids to drop and, like that, a single tear escaped.

"But sometimes I wonder how things would be if the past had been different." Chloe said in a low voice, with her eyes wandering.

Aubrey just wanted to kiss her pain away. Clear her doubts and fears and assure Chloe that she was wonderful just the way she was. Make all the promises she thought didn't make sense to make to anyone until the day she hold Chloe for the first time. She wanted to make Chloe feel that settling, comforting feeling, that the redhead always managed to make her feel when the situation was the inverse. But she just laid there feeling that somehow her love was irradiating from her touch and that Chloe could feel if burning against her skin.

"I can't change it, - I know - I don't think I would if I could, anyway." Chloe decided. "Emma is everything, she makes all of this worth."

Aubrey smiled softly at Chloe. She felt unworthy of, but she was beginning to understand what Chloe meant with that phrase. Emma _really_ was worth so much, and it was absolutely insane, because she was so tiny, and so young, and it was still an enigma to Aubrey how parental love happened at all. She just knew that she was feeling something near that.

"You have a future, though." Aubrey said.

Chloe smiled a little. "Yes. With you." Her smile grew wider and Aubrey, not controlling herself anymore, kissed her hard. There were times in which self-control the trait Aubrey would proudly brag about having. Now, she doesn't feel like it belongs to her anymore – at least not when Chloe is around.

"I feel guilty because I kind of felt jealous that Beca is finally doing her thing." Chloe mumbled. "I'm a terrible best friend for this, God. Is it that bad that I wanted that for me? I feel so frustrated. That's not me, I'm now some jealous bitch, I want my loved ones to prosper, I wish them the best. I'm so ashamed."

"Oh, please, Chlo', stop." Aubrey ordered. "It's okay to feel like that, it's normal. We all know you wish her the best. Beca knows that, I'm sure she does. She would never hate you for the you are feeling in the way you are hating yourself." She sighed and then took a softer voice tone. "It's not a crime to want the best for you too sometimes."

Chloe finally seemed to really listen to her. Something in her face changed and the miserable expression she had before vanished, being replaced for something that was just indescribable for Aubrey; it was so Chloe, it was like watching a new sun rise. Hope was in there, mixed with a glint of bittersweetness. Aubrey could not look away, not even if she wanted to.

"I have the best for me. You are the best for me." Chloe smiled to her girlfriend and shifted closer to her. Aubrey felt drunk with the smell of Chloe's shampoo and held her a little tighter.

She hoped Chloe knew that she also felt like she was at the best for her too.

"Grad school, huh? That was your plan?" Aubrey questioned after some time in silence, as she felt Chloe's arms wrap around her neck.

"Yeah, get some more education. Julliard, Cornell, or NYU, who knows?" Chloe nuzzled her nose against Aubrey's neck, her voice sounding sleepy. "Then after, I'd teach in some snobby dance studio, or maybe a drama club, there's a lot of people trying to get into Broadway there. Maybe I'd get a PhD too, and be a university teacher. One of those who are really cool, you know."

Aubrey laughed. "Sounds like a plan. I like plans." She said, running a hand through Chloe's hair then down her back, again and again.

"You _love_ plans." Chloe stated. "Now plan to fall asleep, please, we both have work tomorrow."

And in a few minutes, Chloe was snoring lightly against Aubrey's chest, unaware that her girlfriend was still very awake with a frown on her face.

* * *

Their pillowtalk unsettled Aubrey.

She _loved_ , was over the moon, with the fact that Chloe couldn't imagine a future without her on it because it was exactly how she felt. There was no future for Aubrey Posen without Chloe Beale's shenanigans and those laugh lines on the corner of her eyes. The unsettling came from the way Chloe was clearly avoiding her other dreams and plans.

What was Chloe waiting for? Didn't she know Aubrey was there to full and absolute support in whatever she decided?

Then it hit Aubrey like a train wreck. Of course, she didn't knew, that engagement ring hadn't left her nightstand yet. Beca was right. Aubrey already felt married to Chloe even if the things weren't yet explicit.

She wanted Chloe to achieve all of that. Every single one of her dreams, every single wish of her heart. She wanted to be the one to go through all the mess in order to see Chloe achieve her goals. How could she tell Chloe that? And make Chloe feel like it's not for a favor, it's not for duty, it's not as a burden, that Aubrey would do it?

She could propose, yes. They had gone a long way through losing, finding each other again, stablishing themselves, learning to cope with their differences, and working on the obstacles on their way; Aubrey wouldn't change it for the world. She the grandmother's engagement ring and every time she looked at Chloe she only got surer where she wanted it to settle. And yet, proposing didn't really seem like the solution.

There was one thing Chloe was right, though. Aubrey _loved_ plans.

She spent Monday morning emailing departments of universities from New York about application for graduation programs in performing arts. She was very pleased with the Excel spreadsheet she put together with all the information she needed. She downloaded PDFs with pamphlets from several institutions, altogether with reviews about their education programs. She made sure all the information she got was as reliable as you can get on the internet and put it all in a folder in her work computer named "Chloe". She still had to think of a proper name for her mission.

"If you are calling me to invite me to buy me dinner I'm in, otherwise, I'm too busy with…um…taking my dog to a walk." Beca said as she answered her phone, later that day.

"You don't have a dog." Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"You know nothing about me." Aubrey heard a human barking on the background. "I know that's Amy barking, I swear I can hear the Australian accent."

"Okay, you got me, Posen." Beca gave in. "So, how can I help you?"

They settled a meeting at a cozy diner nearby Beca's place with Amy tagging along for later. Aubrey printed out a Word document with the basic of her plan and slipped in her bag; she was a professional woman, even if it was just for Beca and Amy, whom couldn't possibly care less if Aubrey decided instead to write down her plan with crayons.

"Damn, woman, you don't play." Beca exclaimed, examining the sheet in her hands.

"The plan is: I take this to Chloe and like that I show her that I have her back, one hundred per cent, in whatever she decides to do." Aubrey stated, proudly.

"You would be a great serial killer." Amy said, not taking her eyes off the detailed search Aubrey printed out. "Look, addresses and everything."

Aubrey just ignored the comment and went on explaining her plan. "I'm sure it wouldn't be a lot of problem for Chloe to get accepted in one of those universities."

"You're such a supportive wife." Amy said, seeming genuinely touched.

"Chloe is not my wife." Aubrey replied, annoyed.

"Yet." Beca said, chewing on her fries. Could she not eat and speak at the same time?

"Someday hopefully she will be but now I'm just her girlfriend and we are okay with this. I'm waiting for the right time to propose." Aubrey said more to herself then to her moron friends.

"My wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife," Amy kept repeating staring at Aubrey.

"What are you doing, Amy?" Aubrey asked, a little concerned about pinpointing when that conversation became a mess.

"I'm trying to get into your mind." Amy answered, like it was obvious.

Aubrey stared at her friend with an incensed look.

"Okay, okay, just leave her alone, Amy." Beca reasoned. "She probably has this huge plan about proposing. Something with fireworks or an acapella performance under the moonlight, right, Bree?"

"Don't call me Bree, only Chloe calls me Bree." Aubrey sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Being your wife really has its privileges." Amy said.

Aubrey limited herself to rolling her eyes. Maybe Beca felt that they had gone too far in their favorite activity, annoying Aubrey until her pout appeared, so she just went back to the matter that brought them together at that diner.

"Look, Aubrey, I'm sure Chloe will appreciate your support, she has been wanting to do it for so long. It was something impossible to think of a few years ago when she was on her own with Emma, but things changed, right? I'm sure you can talk it out and make a decision together. Even if she changed her mind about it and just decides to do something else, this" She motioned to the sheets over their table. "is a proof that you are with her, for real. It's a very wifey move of you, I must say. I'm proud." She smirked playfully at the end and it kept Aubrey from giving her a glare.

The blonde mouthed a thank you, and gave her friends a small smile. She was going to miss Beca terribly, Aubrey thought incredulously.

"So, why are you hesitating about proposing? Is it because Chloe is a ginger? I totally get it." Amy asked breaking their little moment.

* * *

Aubrey was _not_ hesitating about proposing. She was not double thinking the thing. She was not even thinking about making a list of pros and cons, like she usually did about everything in her life. Chloe was so another level that no doubts were heavying her against doing it. But Aubrey was a woman that not just appreciated a well-thought action; she functioned through them.

She sat with Chloe in her kitchen the next night with her printed sheets of information, since Emma was out with Beca, that promised to get into the mall's ball pool with her because - not so surprisingly - she was the only adult she knew who could get in because of her height, they had the space and time to have that conversation. Aubrey had a confident smile on her face, trying to mask the fact that inside, she was nervous, 'I hope Chloe doesn't think I'm trying to dictate her life' kind of nervous.

"I love it, Aubrey." Chloe said with a condescending smile, reaching to take Aubrey's hand. Aubrey felt her stomach drop, something was not going well. She didn't even know exactly what she was expecting Chloe to say but somehow the answer she got after she laid down her search made her dizzy. "But let's be realistic, it's impossible."

Aubrey gave her a puzzled look. No, it wasn't. It's only impossible if you never try, and then if you don't succeed for sure is impossible because you are not good enough, her father always said. Luckily, she learned to block entirely the second part of the phrase.

"The chances of me getting a scholarship in one of those colleges are the lowest, I'm older than most applicants and out of school for years now. And paying for those tuitions are not a possibility, not with my salary. The salary that I would not have anymore because I would be in New York. Let's suppose I get a job there and manage to share my time between it and the classes, I still have a kid to raise. Aubrey, baby, I appreciate the time you took on this so much, I know your heart was at the right place, but it is not for me, it's impossible." Chloe squeezed her girlfriends hand and leaned in to peck her lips.

Aubrey frowned. Chloe had a point of course, but she totally missed Aubrey's point.

"What about me?" She blurted out.

"You?"

"Yeah. Where am I while you are in New York?"

"Um, here?" Chloe gave her the look that this was the only obvious answer. "Working with your father? Because that's what you have been planning since you were fourteen? I mean, I wouldn't want to break up with you or something like that, but we could try the long-distance thing, if that would be okay with you. Luckily, that's all hypothetical since I'm not-"

Aubrey shook her head vigorously, a smile spreading slowly on her face as she watched Chloe's rambling.

"Oh, Chloe, you didn't get it." The blonde said, squeezing both of Chloe's hands. "I'm on your equation, okay? If you are in New York, I'm there with you. If you are here, I'm here. I'm by your side."

It was Chloe's time to have a frown on her face.

"I'm not sending you away from Atlanta. I'm telling you that if you want to go to New York, I have your back." Aubrey clarified. "I can be a lawyer anywhere. Especially there, since my father's firm has a branch there. I'm not badly paid, I have savings and I own this house, I could sell it. Financially, we wouldn't have problems. Of course, you'd be busy with school and I wouldn't expect you to take care of Emma on your own and that's okay, because we would work it out, we would make it out work. Put me on your plans, we can make them possible, together, Chlo'."

Chloe just stared at her, speechless. She was in a place between not believing someone would go all that distance for her and thanking God for her amazing girlfriend. Words were so difficult to form and all she could manage was to open her mouth only to close it again without nothing to say. Aubrey was looking at her with an expectant look, her hands griping onto Chloe's, that looked down quickly to notice their fingers tangled.

"Would really do it? All of that? For me?" Chloe managed to ask, with a tremble voice and misty eyes.

Aubrey's eyes couldn't leave Chloe's, she was so deep into those blue orbs that she probably didn't noticed the words slipping out of her tongue. "Of course. You're my wife, I'd-" She stopped suddenly, and her jaw dropped. "Oh my God, Amy _did_ get into my mind. Damn it." She shook her head and looked at Chloe, who had an amused smile on her face. "I didn't mean to say it. Of course, I want you to be my wife but Amy got into my head, she kept repeating it and Beca didn't helped me at all, it was awful, those two together are insufferable and-"

Aubrey rambling was rare. It only happened if she was too nervous or if she was absolutely out of her field. Chloe figured out that at that moment, it was a little bit of both. "You want me to be your wife?" The redhead interrupted, even if Aubrey shooting forty words per second was _cute_.

The blonde opened her mouth to say something, but in the last minute she seemed to decide against. She held a finger up to Chloe, asking her to wait, and ran upstairs leaving a clueless Chloe in her living room. Aubrey's place was nice and neat, with matching furniture and light gray walls, very differently from her own place; and that was the only distracting thought Chloe found to grip on to while she torturously waited for Aubrey to come back.

Her girlfriend stumbled back into her living room, sitting beside Chloe, and assuming a very serious expression.

"You are right, I love plans." It was all she said before falling silent. Chloe didn't say a thing, everything, from about Aubrey's posture to the way her knuckles went white as her hands clasped together, was telling her to just stay quiet. "I planned to find you a few years ago and it was for sure my best decision. I knocked on your door that day and I had no idea if you'd want to see me again, if you'd ever want me back. I plan our dates in my head every single time. I plan everything, Chloe. I was going to plan _this_ too, but I'm giving myself a chance." She took Chloe's hands in hers and the redhead realized what exactly was happening, she just expected to not be wrong. "I do want you to be my wife. I didn't decide it now, I decided so long ago that I honestly don't remember a time when I didn't want it. I want to build the rest of my life around you. I want to wake up by your side every single day, I want to share a home with you, I want to support your dreams, I want to make you dinner and listen about your day, I want to fall asleep with my arms around you, I want to throw stupid dinner parties to our friends, I want to be there when Emma goes to college and hold you when you cry because you miss your baby, I want to take you to see the world and live a happy, married, boring life in between. I want us to be a family, I want to grow old with you." She took a deep breath. "I want to call you my wife."

By Aubrey's last phrase, Chloe was tearing up in front of her. Her laugh lines were visible like never before, because her smile was splattered all over her face. Aubrey palped her back pocket without tearing her gaze from Chloe's face and picked up the little velvet box, feeling it burning in her hands with anticipation. Chloe's look fell into Aubrey's hand and her jaw dropped slightly as the blonde opened the blonde to reveal the ring. When she brought her eyes up to her girlfriend's face, she found tears running through her cheeks and her lips shit tight, preventing them from quivering. Chloe cupped her hands around her cheeks and wiped the tears away with her thumb, a small gesture that reminded her that even in her bravest moments, Aubrey was still only human, that committed mistakes and needed guidance, support, love and care. That was the thought that made her open her mouth.

"Bree, baby," Chloe started saying, trying hard to make her words comprehensible between her huge smile and her happy tears. "You have to ask." She chuckled softly.

This seemed to snap Aubrey out of her frozenness. She smiled to the woman and slipped from the couch to the ground, setting herself onto one knee in front of her girlfriend, hoping that soon she would be able to call her something else.

"Chloe, sweet Chloe, will you marry me?"

Aubrey was a convincing woman. People did say yes to her. She didn't just walk into a room, she instantly owned it. She persuaded judges, prosecutors, criminals, attorneys. She was used to be agreed with, to lead, to be right, to hear "yes". But there was no positive answer she had ever received in her entire life that matched what she was about to hear.

"Yes." Chloe shrieked. "Yes. Yes. Yes."

It was all she said, and Aubrey didn't even have the time to do anything else before Chloe's lips were on hers, her hands slipping through her blonde hair, kissing her hard and pushing her up to stand. Chloe heard the velvet box fall on the ground and none of them cared. Aubrey's arms enveloped body, and swept her out of the floor, spinning them, making Chloe's head dizzy for more than one reason. They reluctantly broke the kiss, Chloe kept bringing Aubrey's face to hers and pecking her lips repeatedly. She almost whined when Aubrey let go from her to look for the lost velvet box.

She got up back with the ring and approached Chloe again, resting their foreheads together. "It was my grandmother's." Aubrey said, still breathing heavily from their kiss. She carefully slipped it onto Chloe's finger, kissing her hand when it settled on its place.

"It's beautiful." Chloe said, looking down at her left hand.

"Yeah, it is." Aubrey agreed, but her eyes hadn't left Chloe's face.

Chloe looked up to find Aubrey's green eyes and realized that she had an entire life of having those eyes as the first thing she was going to see in the morning. She felt a shiver running down her entire body with the thought and threw herself back into Aubrey's arms.

"I love you so much, I don't even know how to say it properly." Chloe said, closing her eyes as their foreheads touched again. She felt Aubrey kiss her lips lightly and longer, before letting her mouth rest against her cheek.

"You just did, love." Aubrey's voice reverberated against her skin, bringing that shiver back. "You just did."

 **!**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed it and please let me know your thoughts! I love to hear your opinions, they help me improving.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	11. Hearts don't break around here

**I hate endings but I swear this one will be worth your reading. Thank you for the reviews, they encouraged me to keep going.**

 **I hope you enjoy, this is for you.**

A window of time was open the day that ring settled on Chloe's finger.

The Bellas celebrated their engagement with a dinner party at Stacie's backyard. Unfortunately, the owner of the yacht Amy got for them the last time was back in town and looking for the responsible for purple slime stain on the deck that until that day hadn't gone off yet. They knew it was they fault, but they were so wasted they couldn't possibly remember how they did that.

So, dinner at Stacie's it was, but it wasn't just a dinner anymore since it got prolonged until the first hours of the morning and Beca passed out nearby the dog's house, after crying over how it was unhuman to someone live in that tiny space. Amy did try to put her sleepy body inside it, saying it would be a great story if she woke up in the morning in there, but Aubrey stopped her, and Beca woke up instead on Chloe's couch.

Aubrey made them her famous pancakes and Emma insisted on guiding Beca through the art of eating them, offering her whipped cream and chocolate syrup to put on top of hers. A picture of a very hangovered Beca having breakfast with the tiny redhead by her side appeared on the Bella's groupchat that day and no one could really get over how Beca Mitchell, the newest and hottest addition to Litigator Records, looked too biased with her brunch date.

Sadly, time is not gentle if you are holding too tight on to it.

Soon Beca and Jesse were on their way to LA. It was a sad day and Atlanta's skies were grey – Chloe thought it was some kind of joke. Aubrey hold Emma while Chloe and Beca exchanged teary farewells, looking like a couple, in which someone was going to war and probably die in there. Jesse, watching the scene beside the blonde, had the the same look on his face – there's some bonds that are not meant to be understood by anyone else. Amy was missing since Beca's send away party, two days ago, but appeared on the last minute, making all three of them cry even more. She held Beca like a teddy bear and you couldn't even hear the brunette complaining this time.

Watching Beca go brought a bittersweet feeling to Aubrey. She already could picture the nostalgic feeling she would feel remembering the old life they used to have there.

The months passed like they belonged someone else's story, like they were filling the gap between two worlds.

Atlanta was becoming less and less home. Their mind is not _really_ there anymore, and they cling into each other for love and support (one: lingering, chaste, goodnight kisses before they get into bed; two: Aubrey with Emma onto her hip, holding her with her eyes closed with Emma hugging her back, pressing her face against the blonde's neck; three: Chloe having explanatory conversations with her daughter, making sure the changes in their lives are clear to the little girl). Chloe was applying to several universities in New York, Aubrey was settling her transferring, and Emma had questions.

"Do you think Gisele could come and babysit me sometimes when we're there?" And then Chloe would take time explaining that no, that wouldn't happen, but that every time they went to Atlanta, she would make sure that she saw Gisele.

"Do you think daddy knows how to go to New York?" And Chloe would Skype call Todd, and they would tell her about how nothing would really change, and he would still know how to find them.

"I hope they have pizza in there. Do they, mama?" And Aubrey would take time showing Emma on the Google Maps all the pizza places they could go.

"Can I have a dog when we get there?" And Chloe and Aubrey would exchange a concerned look. They answered a _maybe_ in unison. At least, she apparently had forgotten the first thing she asked after knowing that they were getting married ( _cool,_ _can you guys give me a little sister now?_ ). A dog was easier to get. They would have to talk about it. A lot.

Time seemed to stop for a few second, when Chloe slipped a wedding band into Aubrey's finger in that April afternoon. Her red hair was down, and she had a flower crown on her head, her flowy dress moving with the wind. Maybe time didn't stop, maybe being biased just made people see things in slow motion, Aubrey reasoned.

They got married at the Posen's lake house in the country. A small ceremony, only immediate family and the Bellas; so yes, only immediate family. Both of them wore light dresses in a creamy color, and Emma chose the flowers: sweet peas. Aubrey recited her vows in a voice tone that made obvious that she was on the blink of tears; during hers, Chloe allowed her tears to strain her cheeks. They took so many pictures that would put awards shows photographers to shame. Beca almost cried during her maid of honor speech and Aubrey almost cracked up a laugh, but shut her lips together when Chloe elbowed her side. After all, they danced the night away like they were twenty-one again and Chloe kissed her wife passionately when Just the Way You Are came on; she thought was amusing that she was also kissing the same girl she used to kiss when she was twenty-one.

They found themselves living in a small, two-bedroom apartment for the first three months they were living in New York. They barely bothered unpacking, fishing only what they really needed out of the boxes and eating a lot of take out. Aubrey was bothered with the mess, _of course_ , but she if she learned something about the last years of her life, was to welcome the unpredicted. She never thought that this was how she would someday have a family of her own, but hey, just look at her looking for a Princess Poppy doll in one of the boxes with Emma's toys.

The rent was stupidly expensive for such a ratty place, but it was near Aubrey's new office and that was their only requirement, since they moved there early because Aubrey's father recommended her to work as soon as possible and start building a reputation between her coworkers – theirs as soon as possible was one week after the school year was over - when Chloe had quit her job and Emma was ready to start first grade - they put their things into a rented moving truck and left for the big city.

After a lot of house hunting, they found a townhouse in Kips Bay when they were already nearly giving up finding anything worth and almost decided to sign up a one-year-lease contract for their temporary apartment. It wasn't _that_ bad, it was what they said to themselves when they laid in bed at night, trying weakly to convince themselves of that lie, while Emma, sleeping soundly, was tucked between them because she was scared to death of their neighbor and wouldn't sleep alone in her bedroom. The only way they were able to afford their house was because Anthony Posen had many contacts in the city, and also, because he gave them a big check as a wedding gift that paid at least half of the house. Very often Chloe forgot about the Posen's acquisitive power.

It was an old house, build in mid-1920 but reformed recently. Three-stored, five bedrooms, a wood floor to die for, a cute little garden on the back and a beautiful fireplace. Chloe thought it was a little _too much_ , but Aubrey adored it, and was glad that the last owner didn't had such a bad taste, making the idea of having to making some changes in the house unnecessary. They closed the deal, satisfied that they would have enough space for everything they needed, a family-friendly neighborhood, easy to get to NYU and Aubrey's new office, and living there it wouldn't be a problem to find a good school for Emma. Aubrey considered private education for the little girl, but considering that they were paying for a house in one of the most expensive cities on Earth, they decided to save that money for Emma's higher education.

They bought the house and moved in as soon as the keys were in their hands. A very relieved Emma grabbed her safety blanket on her way out of their old apartment and buried her face in Chloe's neck, making sure she wouldn't see if their neighbor if they crossed paths.

(Aubrey didn't really understand what make Emma so scared of the guy. Maybe had something to do with the fact that he had a Disney villain vibe. Or that he had such an intense stare. Okay, maybe it was for the best that they were as far as possible from that guy, Emma was possibly right.)

Aubrey approached Chloe the night after they moved in, when she was staring out their front window after they finished dinner, – take out from a Chinese place nearby that seemed decently clean – she had a glass of wine in one hand and Aubrey took a picture of her with her phone before she noticed. Chloe had a tired look, but Aubrey noticed that she couldn't keep the beam out of her face. The blonde leaned down and kissed her lips, cupping her face. For one second, didn't made sense why she spent all that money on that house if she had found her house long ago: a red-haired woman and her mini-me, whom was currently passed out on their new couch just a few feet away.

Chloe cut her hair short and - not meant to say in a such dramatic way, but it was exactly what happened - Aubrey almost lost her breath. It was easier to take care of her crazy red waves in that way. She was always busy with school and giving private singing lessons to a couple of children of the neighborhood a few days a week, her hair was the last thing she had time for. She would get home late night, hungry, tired and still would make some time to her daughter and wife. She knew it would be that hard, but it was exactly what she had signed up for.

It didn't take too long to they to get settled to a routine living in New York. They would wake up by the morning, have breakfast, Chloe would drop Emma by school and go to her class, while Aubrey would take the opposite way and go to her office, work there until five, then pick Emma up on the after school program, cook dinner and help the little girl with homework and wait for Chloe to get home.

Sometimes, she feared that she would lose Aubrey to her hard choices. Their weekdays were insanely busy and Chloe worried that they would grow apart. What kind of person can bear being married to someone who barely has any time for them at all? What kind of person goes through life assuming responsibilities of a child like they are their own and has no complains at all? What kind of person does what Aubrey had done for her, moving into the big city and living this crazy busy life? She kissed Aubrey tenderly and lingering every morning before leaving their house, trying to somehow say how thankful she was for her existence, how happy she was being married to her, how she learned to love her more and more every single day. The warm smile and the "have a good day, love" that the blonde would give her when she tore their lips apart, told her that Aubrey had some idea. She would drop Emma by her school with a forehead kiss, and then run to not get late for her classes. And like that, her day would be filled with so much information and learning, that sometimes she wondered if she could really keep up with the other students, whom were younger and less worried about having an adult life.

Her doubts and worries about keeping her family together would not vanish, but at least give her a break, when she would walk into their house in the end of the day, to find Aubrey between the task of cooking dinner and making sure Emma practices her reading. Or the nights in which she would lost track of time studying in the library and get home so late, that the lights would be off, and she knew her dinner would be in the fridge. She would make her way to the bedroom she shared with Aubrey, to find her wife sleeping as peacefully as she could while still having a seven-year-old sprawled on top of her, an open children's book by the nightstand and the safety blanket on the floor. In those nights, she would wordlessly join them, scooting closer and only falling asleep after Aubrey's hand found her own. In her dreams she would pretend the entire world was on that bed. It wasn't true, but she was comforted by the idea that _her_ entire world was there.

There was no such a thing as a perfect marriage or family, but Aubrey and Chloe figured out they could live with that. Not everyday was their best, not every kiss was like the first one, and not every time they _liked_ each other. The key was that everyday they _wanted_ to make the best, every kiss they _felt_ like the first one, and when they didn't like each other, they made sure _love_ would fix it. And hell, they loved each other. Their love shined brightly between New York City's lights, it was almost blinding.

After Chloe graduated from grad school and started running a dance studio downtown in partnership with two colleagues from NYU and Aubrey got used working more from home, they started having more flexible time. Aubrey had a working meeting in LA and Chloe jumped at the opportunity, making Aubrey's business trip into a "let's visit Beca and Jesse" trip. They sat in Beca's edgy living room, with a couple of golden records and Jesse's movie posters hanging on the walls. Emma, who recently got _really_ into movies and TV shows, was hanging on every word Jesse was saying about his work scoring music for some new streaming service's shows.

They chatted about their friends back in Atlanta, FaceTimed Amy briefly before she excused herself to get into some wrestling competition, talked about future and next meetings. They saw each other regularly although the distance, since Beca was often in New York and they made sure to spent at least one holiday each year together. (Last year, was Christmas. Aubrey and Chloe received all the Bellas in their house and no one ended up too wasted to get into bed on their own. They really were growing up.)

Chloe was snuggled with Aubrey in an armchair, watching from afar as Beca showed Emma a few soundtracks from old movies that she had in her extensive collection of vinyl's. The brunette reached out to grab a certain one from the shelf, but couldn't reach it. Emma just grabbed it and handed it to an a little flushed Beca.

Emma was eleven now, she was taller than all her friends - a trait she for sure got from her father. Her long legs made her the tallest ballerina in her class.

"Oh my God, Bree." Chloe gasped. "She's taller than Beca. Our baby is taller than Beca."

"Well, it's not like this is a hard thing to achieve." Aubrey said distractedly, with a smirk, still watching the pair.

Chloe got silent for a minute, watching Aubrey's profile face. "Do you want another one?"

"Another Beca? No way." Aubrey said, sipping her wine.

"Another baby." Chloe said, seriously.

Aubrey's head snapped in her direction. That was an _interesting_ question.

Exactly four months later, they sat with Emma in their living room for a talk. The girl had a long red hair and although her baby fat was gone, she still had the same kind face and smart green eyes. The girl seemed to realize that wasn't a casual talk, because she had a suspicious look on her face since the beginning.

"I thought I was going to be an only child forever." Emma said. "You guys not even gave me a dog."

"You have a cat." Aubrey pointed out.

"Mom, Fleur is actually a human spirit trapped in a feline's body." As if understanding that she was being addressed, the Siamese Munchkin cat sitting by the floor meowed. Aubrey thinks that Fleur's human spirit probably had some family relation with Lily - such a weird cat. "So, really? Are you guys thinking about adopting?" Her tone voice was excited, and they took it as a good sign.

Chloe smiled at her daughter. "Yes. We are considering. We actually just needed to talk to you about it. We want to know how you feel about it."

"Really? So, if I say that I don't want you guys to do it, you won't do it?" Emma teased with a smirk.

Aubrey tried to not sound anxious as she spoke. "Your opinion matters here. We want you to be a part of this decision."

Emma looked back and forth between her moms.

"Why now?" She frowned.

"Well, have the time since we are not into those rigid work schedules anymore; we have the place, I mean, look at this house; and since you are a big girl now, we thought that would be a great experience for you too."

Emma's excitement suddenly vanished, but she put up a fake smile to cover. When you raise a kid for year, you can tell when they are being sincere and when they are hiding something.

"I think it will be fine." Emma offered, tugging up a smile.

"Baby, are you sure?" Chloe asked.

Emma opened her mouth to say something but closed soon after. She looked a little boomed.

"Emma, you seem bothered." Aubrey said in a soft tone she used only for Emma. "You can talk to us, _nana_."

 _Nana_ was how Grandma Posen called Aubrey. When Aubrey started tutoring Emma through French three years ago, the nickname came easily and just became a habit.

"Will they have your last name?" Emma asked Aubrey.

Aubrey and Chloe looked at each other in confusion. They not even had discussed about it. They kept their last names; Aubrey for business reason, and Chloe because she was too attached to being, a Beale and didn't felt comfortable with taking a name that her daughter didn't had.

"No." Aubrey decided. "I want them to share your last name. You'll be siblings, after all."

The thought that Anthony Posen may not be entirely happy with the fact that none of Aubrey's children would carry the Posen name was soon vanished with the look Chloe gave her. A mix of surprise, joy and thankfulness.

"But they will be your child." Emma said in a sad tone.

"You are my child, Emma. Don't be silly." Aubrey said, without understanding.

"Legally, I'm not."

"Does that bother you? I had no idea." Chloe gave her daughter a sympathetic look.

"Huh…yes?" Emma scrunched up her nose, a thing she did when she was trying to figure out something. "I mean, nevermind. Let's forget about it. It's fine. You are my moms, I love both of you and that's it. And I'd love to have a sibling, really." She said, giving them a tight smile. "Fleur and I are ready to be big sisters."

 _That fucking cat is not my daughter._ Aubrey thought.

"Now, can I go to Jade's?" Emma asked before they could say anything else about the situation.

They were not so excited about the adoption anymore. In Aubrey's mind, couldn't let go the fact that Emma felt that way while in her mind, Emma was undoubtedly _hers_. It was probably her fault, since she was the one providing too much legal drama to the kid and all those stories about parents fighting over children's guardianship freaked her out about it.

That night, Aubrey and Chloe found themselves in their usual pillowtalk position – face to face, Chloe's hand fidgeting with Aubrey's ear, or collarbone, or stray lock of hair. They assured each other that Emma was independent of what they had, that even if someday – they said it horrified – they split, or Chloe died, Emma was still Aubrey's. And it was true. Nothing could break the bond Aubrey build with Emma. (Sometimes, Chloe would find similarities in them, and when she commented it, they would react in the exactly same way.) And there were no doubts that Emma felt like Aubrey was indeed her mother. She tells everyone she has two moms and gets highly defensive if someone points out that Aubrey is just her step-mom.

Aubrey knocked on her Emma's door the next night. Emma was already laying down, since it was her bedtime, with Fleur laying asleep by the end of the bed.

"You are not here to tuck me in, right?" Emma asked with a smirk. "I don't need it anymore."

"Of course, I'm not." Aubrey said, but rearranged the covers over Emma anyway. "Do you want to talk about our yesterday conversation?

Emma scrunched up her nose and sat down, leaning against the bedpost. "I snapped, didn't I?"

Aubrey chuckled. "No, you have every right to say how you are feeling."

Emma lowed her gaze to her hands over her space stamped covers. "I want you to adopt the baby. It would be selfish if I didn't. I overreacted, I know you are my mom and that doesn't matter what the law says. It's just a piece of paper, right?" Aubrey wanted to object on that but decided to stay quiet. "You are great to me, always was, and I'm sure you'll be great for the new Beale."

Aubrey smiled genuinely at her daughter, pinching her nose. She leaned against the bedpost beside Emma and opened an arm and the girl instantly snuggled against her mom. "Have you ever heard about a Petition for Appointment of Guardian?"

They only assigned for the adoption waiting list after Aubrey was legally a guardian of Emma. It wasn't an adoption because Emma had both parents, and it wasn't the perfect solution, but assured Aubrey that if the worst-case scenarios happened, Emma would be safe with her. It was enough to Emma quit her doubts and allow herself to be extremely excited about gaining a sibling.

"Do we want a boy?" Chloe asked, signing the forms.

"Oh, Emma will not like that. I have two brothers, they were awful. Maybe we want a girl." Aubrey answered.

"No way, I had three sisters, Emma will not want that." Chloe retorted.

In the end, they decided to leave the gender unsolicited, and test their luck.

Ten months in the waiting list and then one day, an e-mail dropped from their social worker. " _There's a little girl. Seven months old. I think this match is perfect, I'm emailing you more details right now. Take a look."_ Aubrey's heart skipped a beat.

"Can I name her?" Emma asked, excited when her parents shared the news.

"Are you going to suggest some Harry Potter name?" Chloe asked, and the girl nodded. "Then no."

Two weeks later, they were in a waiting room, hands tangled together, telling themselves to not get – yet – too attached to the baby they were about to meet.

But the moment the social worker said, " _there she is"_ , Chloe couldn't help but think, _well, she is my daughter now._

Aubrey wasn't doing much better, her actions betrayed her. The blonde leaned down to _talk_ to the baby in that voice she used only for Emma, and Chloe just knew she was already in love.

The baby had blonde curls on her head that almost made Chloe scream of how much it reminded Aubrey's baby pictures. When the blonde carried the baby, and propped her up on her hip, she exchanged a look with her wife and Chloe knew exactly what was on her mind. _That's her, that's our daughter._

(Aubrey had no experience in being a parent ever since a first meeting. It was scary. With Emma, she gradually became a parent. With her second daughter, it took one look, one second, on meeting, and she was a parent. Chloe couldn't stop laughing, sympathetically, when Aubrey started crying uncontrollably when they left the room.)

Charlotte was her name and it was pretty cute, so they decided to keep it. It fitted her, Aubrey didn't know how to explain, but it was enough to make her brush aside the idea of naming her Ethel, after her grandmother. Emma immediately started calling her Coco, and soon Chloe was calling her Coco and one day it happened: _Coco, baby, make it easy for mama, eat your food_ , Aubrey said out loud trying to spoon avocado into the baby's mouth. Chloe and Emma exchanged a glance and started laughing. Since then, name Charlotte was only said in that household if the younger girl was being scolded for something.

Aubrey Posen never thought she was the kind of person to have poorly draw family picture framed by her office's desk. Or the kind of person who you saw by the park with a stroller, two kids and a wife. Or someone who got used to caring more for someone else's life than her own. Or three other lives.

"I would propose to you again if I could, you know." Aubrey said one early Sunday morning to Chloe, in which they seemed to be the only people awake in New York City.

Chloe kissed her lazily, her body draped over her wife's. "I would say yes to you again, if I could."

Aubrey smiled and kissed the redhead again. "I could live with that."

Chloe was in middle of the way into kissing Aubrey again when Coco cried from the other room. "I'll go." She said and left the bed. She stopped by the door and turned around. "See you soon?" She smirked.

Aubrey grinned at her. "See you soon."

They maintained the eye contact, grinning like idiots at each other and secretly thinking how long they've come together. Chloe blew her wife a kiss before disappearing down the hallway.

None of them could wait for the rest of their story.

 **First of all, thank you for the audience, I would never do it if you guys weren't there.**

 **The first chapter of this story was written in 2015 and published here as a one-shot. A few months ago, a few ideas about Aubrey and Chloe came up and I wrote it, without any intentions of publishing it online. I noticed that this ship was not really popular, and very few fanfiction or fanart has been made about it, so I decided to share this, as a small contribution, to this fandom.**

 **I just want to say thank you for keeping up with this work, it means a lot to me. I beg your pardon for the prompts I didn't write and I hope you guys had the same fun and lovely feelings reading** **these connected** **little** **moments** **that I felt while writing it** **.** **I wrote these eleven chapters between small gaps of time I have, road trips, holidays and boring Sunday afternoons. I really wanted to give Aubrey, Chloe and Emma a closure, and you guys guided me until here.** **I want to write this ship again someday, I love writing them, I learn a lot through them. If some of you are still here when I come back, I'd love to share it with you again.**

 **I started working on a personal project and my time will be scarce from now on. So, once more, thank you for reading this and I hope we meet again in the future. Have a great year!**


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